■^ 



'^■fJ: 



LB 2806 
.U5 
yi913 
Copy 1 



D STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

1913. NO. 31 WHOLE NUMBER 541 



SPECIAL FEATURES IN CITY 
SCHOOL SYSTEMS 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1913 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 

fNoTE.— With the exceptions indicated, the documents named below will be sent free of charge upon 
application to the Commissioner of Education, Washington, D, C. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are 
CO longer available for free distribution, but may be had of the Superintendent of Documents, Government 
I'rinting Office, Washington, D. C, upon payment of the price stated. Documents marked with a dagger 
(t) are out of print. Titles are abridged.] 

101O. 

No. 1. Reform in teaching religion in Saxony, Arley Barthlow Show. 

No. 2. State school systems: October 1, 1908, to October 1, 1909. E. C. Elliott. 

fNo. 3. List of publications of the United States Bureau df Education, 1367-1910, 

No. 4. The biological stations of Europe. Charles Atwood Kofoid. 

No. 5. American schoolhouses. Fletcher B. Dresslar. 

*No. 6. Statistics of State universities, etc., 1909-10. 5cts. 

1911. 

*No. 1. Bibliography of science teaching. 5 eta. 

No. 2. Opportunities for graduate study in agriculture, A. C. Monahan. 
*No. 3. Agencies for improvement of teachers in service. W. C. Kuediger. 15 cts. 
*^No. 4. Report of the commission to study the pubUc schools of Baltimore. 10 cla. 

No. 5. Age and grade census of schools and colleges. George Drayton Strayer. 

No. 6. Graduate work in mathematics in universities. 

No. 7. Undergraduate work in mathematics in colleges and universities. 

No. 8. Examinations in mathematics. 

No. 9. Mathematics in technological schools of collegiate grade. 
*No. 10. Bibliography of education for 1909-10. 15 cts. 
*No. 11. Bibliography of child study for the years 1808-9. 10 cts. 

No. 12. Training of teachers of elementary and secondary mathematics. 

No. 13. Mathematics in elementary schools. 
*No. 14. Provision for exceptional children in the public schools. 10 cts. 
*No. 15. Educational system of China as recently reconstructed. H.E.King/ 10 cts. 

No. 16. Mathematics in public and private secondary schools. 
*No. 17. List of publications of the U. S. Bureau of Education, October, 1911 . 5 cts. 

No. 18. Teachers' certificates (laws and regulations). Harlan Updegraff. 

No. 19. Statistics of State universities, etc., 1910-11. 

1913. 

Course of study for rural school-teachers. F. Mutchler and W.J. Craig. 5 cts. 

Mathematics at West Point and Annapolis. 

Report of committee on uniform records and reports. 

Mathematics in technical secondary schools. 

A study of expenses of city school systems. Harlan Updegraff, 

Agricultural education in secondary schools. 10 cts. 

Educational status of nursing. M, Adelaide Nutting. 

Peace day. Fannie Fern Andrews. 5 cts. 

Country schools for city boys. William Starr Mj^ers. 

Bibliography of education in agriculture and home economics. 10 cts. 

Current educational topics, No. I. 

Dutch schools of New Netherland and colonial New York. W^. H. ICilpatrick 

Influences tending to improve the work of teacher of mathematics. 5 cts. 

Report of the American commissioners on the teaching of mathematics. 

Current educational topics, No. II. 

The reoiganized school playgroxmd. Henry S. Curtis. 5 cts. 

(Continued on page 8 of cover.) 



*No. 


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3. 


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No. 


5. 


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No. 


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*No. 


8. 


No. 


9. 


*No. 


10. 


No. 


11. 


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12. 


*No. 


13. 


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*^No. 


16. 



UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 

BULLETIN. 1913. NO. 31 WHOLE NUMBER 541 



SPECIAL FEATURES IN CITY 
SCHOOL SYSTEMS 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1913 



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n. OF D. 

MOV 14 mi 



'N. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Introduction 5 

All-year school 7 

Newark, N.J 7 

Cooperative industrial courses 10 

York, Pa 10 

Fitchburg, Mass 15 

Hammond, Ind 16 

Lansing, Mich 19 

Beverly, Mass 19 

Home study 21 

Sacramento, Cal 21 

Meriden, Conn 22 

Honor league 23 

Lynchburg, Va 23 

Improvement of teachers 23 

Quincy, 111 23 

Trenton, N.J ^ 24 

Gloucester, Mass 24 

Monnessen, Pa 24 

Trinidad, Colo 25 

Bozeman, Mont 25 

Sedalia, Mo 25 

Schenectady, N . Y 25 

Council Bluffs, Iowa 25 

Caring for the pupils' health 26 

Chicago, 111 : 26 

Birmingham, Ala 26 

Parkersburg, W. Va 27 

St. Cloud, Minn 27 

New Orleans, La 28 

Des Moines, Iowa 28 

Elyria, Ohio 28 

Reading, Pa 28 

Everett, Wash 29 

WiUdnaburg, Pa 29 

Janitor service 30 

Houston, Tex 30 

Literary and club work 30 

Galion, Ohio 30 

Grand Rapids, Mich 31 

Promotion of teachers on qualifications and efficiency 31 

AsheviUe, N.C 31 

Beaver Falls, Pa 32 

Owensboro, Ky 32 

3 



4 CONTENTS. 

Promotion of pupils 33 

Maiden, Mass 33 

School improvement associations 37 

Birmingham, Ala 37 

School gardens 37 

Memphis, Tenn 37 

Los Angeles, Cal 38 

Brockton, Mass 38 

South Omaha, Nebr 39 

Waltham, Mass 39 

Special schools and classes 39 

Newton, Mass 39 

Madison, Wis 41 

Grand Rapids, Mich 41 

Passaic, N.J 42 

Salem, Oreg 43 

New Bedford, Mass 43 

East Chicago, 111 43 

Superior, Wis • 44 

Dayton, Ohio 44 

Brockton, Mass 45 

Hackensack, N.J 45 

Hazleton, Pa 45 

Los Angeles, Cal 46 

Columbia, S. C 52 

Segregation of the sexes 52 

Marinette, Wis 52 

Riverside, Cal 52 

South Bend, Ind 53 

Everett, Wash 53 

School as employment bureau 53 

Selma, Ala 53 

Simplification of the course of study 54 

East Chicago, Ind 54 

Providence, R. 1 54 

Training for citizenship 54 

Winston-Salem, N. C 54 

Uniform grammatical terms 57 

NewYork, N. Y 57 

Notes 58 



SPECIAL FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

All superintendents of schools in cities of 5,000 population and over 
were recently invited by the United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion to describe plans or methods they had worked out in their 
respective schools during the past few years. 

In response to tliis invitation, several hundred letters were received. 
Some gave complete accounts of one or two new things successfully 
accomplished or of experiments now making; others made but brief 
mention of numerous things adopted during the past year or two, 
such as new courses of study, departmental teaching in the grammar 
grades, medical inspection, manual training, etc. This bulletin brings 
together extracts from many of the letters and from school reports 
referred to in other letters. Plans, methods, and devices that have 
been actually worked out or that are now being tested are of more 
interest to the practical school man than what some one thinks 
should be done. If this document meets with approval, other bulle- 
tins of like nature, containing more detailed accounts, will be pub- 
lished. The main purpose is to call attention to the new and prom- 
ising things attempted in city schools and especially in the schools of 
the smaller cities. 

Some of the newer plans of school organization are not described, 
as bulletins regarding them are in course of preparation. No 
interpretation or recommendation regarding the various plans 
described herein is attempted. The reader must decide how many 
and which of the plans are practicable and which ones are suitable 
for adaptation or for trial. 

Especial attention is called, however, to the cooperative indus- 
trial courses at Fitchburg, Mass., Hammond, Ind., York, Pa., and 
other places. These courses seem to be solving the problem of trade 
education in a practical and economical way. The compiler of this 
bulletin visited the cooperative schools at Fitchburg, Mass., and 
York, Pa., and found that the school authorities, the manufacturers, 
the parents, and the boys are enthusiastic over the course, many of 
the boys saying that they would not now be in school if this course 
were not offered. 

One of the most difficult problems a school board or a superin- 
tendent has to meet is that of arranging a just and equitable salary 
schedule for the promotion of teachers. It is a well-known fact 

5 



6 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

that promotion on experience alone does not always reward the best 
teachers, and that this method of promotion does not tend to call 
forth special effort at improvement on the part of the teacher. It 
may, however, help retain teachers in service for a greater number of 
years. Advanced education and professional training, according to 
some of the more thoughtful school men, should be rewarded in 
every salary schedule. Dr. Strayer and Dr. Thorndike find that in 
formal salary schedules the premiums usually given are too low for 
education and too high relatively for experience in teaching.^ 

The methods for the classification and promotion of teachers at 
Asheville, N. C, Owensboro, Ky., and Beaver Falls, Pa., cities of 
from 12,000 to 25,000 population, are worth considering. They may 
be suggestive to the superintendent who attempts to prepare a salary 
schedule based upon education and merit rather than upon length of 
service. 

Many plans have been devised to break up the ''lock-step system'' 
of yearly and half-yearly promotions of pupils. The plan of promot- 
ing pupils in the schools of Maiden, Mass., may appeal to the reader 
and suggest a better way of advancing children from grade to grade 
than the rigid systems now in vogue in many city schools of this 
country. 

To many cities vacation schools, planned to educate through play, 
are not new, but summer schools planned for instruction in 
arithmetic, grammar, history, etc., at public expense, are compara- 
tively new. In Newark, N. J., is a notable example. It would seem 
from the report of the superintendent of that city that school work 
in July and August causes no ill effects upon either the child's or the 
teacher's health. Statistics giving enrollment and attendance show 
that the two summer schools conducted last year in Newark were 
popular and profitable. The experiment is one that will be watched 
with interest. 

How to secure educational and professional growth in a corps of 
teachers is a problem that confronts many superintendents. Several 
plans are suggested in this bulletin that are at least practicable for 
those cities that are making use of them. The Quincy method would 
be feasible, no doubt, in a number of cities located near normal 
schools or colleges. Placing premiums on educational growth and 
professional training, as at Owensboro, Ky., should be a great 
stimulus to the improvement of teachers in service. The ''Sab- 
batical year" at Schenectady, N. Y., offers a means of improvement 
of teachers who have rendered good service and would be benefited 
by a year spent in travel and study. The plan adopted at Boze- 
man, Mont., of requiring teachers to attend a summer training school 
every few years will doubtless meet with approval. 

1 Educational Administration. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 7 

Attention is called also to the method of teaching sex hygiene in 
several cities, to the unique plan at Winston-Salem, N. C, of training 
for citizenship by having the pupils participate in some of the 
activities of that city, to the devices employed in several cities for 
improving the health of school children, and to the miscellaneous 
notes which mention a few of the newer things some superintendents 
are testing. 



ALL-YEAR SCHOOL. 

Newark, N. J. A. B. Poland, superintendent of city schools. Report, 
1911-12. — On June 1, 1912, two all-year schools were opened in 
Newark, N. J., partly for the purpose of proving (1) that, under 
proper conditions of discipline and instruction, pupils will suffer no 
physical or mental injury by reason of an additional eight weeks of 
school attendance during the months of July and August; (2) that 
the continuous session through July and a greater part of August 
saves an enormous loss of time and energy. 

In order that the failure of this experiment could not be chargeable 
to unfavorable conditions or to bad management, but, rather, to 
some radical defect in the all-year plan itself, two schools were 
selected in preference to others, as — 

(1) Each was located in a thickly congested district where social 
and economic conditions are favorable to an all-year school. 

(2) A lar^ percentage of the children had been accustomed to 
attend cummer schools, which for many years had been maintained 
in these buildings for six weeks during July and August. 

(3) The pupils of these schools are mostly of foreign descent — 
Jewish and Italian — whose parents are desirous of having them make 
as rapid progress as possible. 

(4) Both are large schools, regularly enrolling about 2,000 pupils 
each, a number large enough to secure a safe as well as economical 
trial of the plan. 

(5) A preliminary canvass of pupils likely to attend the all-year 
schools showed a probable enrollment of about 70 per cent of the 
er^tire number regularly enrolled. 

(6) The principals of both schools are good organizers and well 
equipped professionally for an experiment of this kind. 

As a result of the year's experiment the following recommendations 
are made for the year 1913: 

(1) That the experiment be continued in the Belmont Avenue and 
Seventh Avenue Schools. 

(2) That one, or perhaps two, more of the best-attended summer 
schools (six weeks half-day schools — 28 of them) be made all-year 
schools, beginning June 1, 1913. 



8 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

(3) That one of the three high schools, preferably the Central Com- 
mercial and Manual Training, be organized on the all-year plan. 

(4) That the number of all-year schools be increased only gradually 
thereafter as the public, with full knowledge of their value, may 
insistently demand. 

Organization. — ^The organization of the all-year summer schools 
was easily accompHshed by dividing each year, or grade, into three 
divisions, called C, B advanced, and A advanced. The course of 
study also was divided into three equal parts of 12 weeks each. The 
following diagram is designed to show the coordination of the all- 
year plan with the regular plan, the correspondence of the various 
grades under both plans, the length of time taken by both plans to 
cover the elementary school course, and also the comparative 
progress of pupils by the two plans. 

It will be seen that each year's work under the regular plan is 
divided into two terms of 20 weeks each, while each year's (or grade's) 
work under the all-year plan is divided into 3 terms of 12 weeks each. 
Thus the C class in each grade will do the first two- thirds of the work 
of the corresponding B class of the same grade under the regular 
plan. The B Advanced class in each grade will do the last one-third 
of the work of the corresponding B class and the first one-third of 
the work of the corresponding A class. The A Advanced class will 
do the last two- thirds of the work of the corresponding A class. 
This division makes it comparatively easy to assign a pupil trans- 
ferred from another school to the proper grade with little or no loss 
of time or grade, to the pupil so transferred. 

The pupil attending four 12- week terms in any calendar year 
gains one- third of a grade's work over pupils under the regular plan. 
This means a gain of two full grades in six years, enabling the pupil 
to complete the eight grades' work in six years, instead of eight years 
according to the regular plan. Thus a pupil entering the first grade 
September 1, 1912, under the regular plan and making regular prog- 
ress will be able to enter the high school September 1, 1920; whereas 
a pupil entering the first grade at the same time, anij progressing 
regularly through the grades of the aU-year plan, will be ready to 
enter the high school September 1, 1918, that is, two years earlier. 

It is essential in order that the regular plan and the all-year plan 
may be carried on side by side and without friction that the dates 
for the beginning and ending of vacations should be, as nearly as 
practicable, the same. This is easily effected because of the fact 
that the eight added weeks of the year are all in July and August 
when the regular pupils are having their vacation. Instead of the 
usual ten weeks vacation in the summer, the all-year pupils get but 
two weeks. At all other times of the year pupils under both plans 
have vacations of the same length and at the same time. 



FEATUBES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 



9 



Such, in brief, are the practical details of the all-year plan. I 
have not been able to find any serious difficulties on the administra- 



« o 



DIAGRAM SHOWING RATE OF PROGRESS 



CO 



/SEPT.1918 
JUNE 1918 
MAR. 1918 
DEC. 1917 
)SEPT.1917 
JUNE 1917 
MAR. 1917 

DEC.1916 



)SEPT.1916 

JUNE 1916 

MAR. 1916 

DEC. 1915 



/SEPT.1915 



JUNE 1915 
MAR. 1915 
DEC, 1914 

SEPT.1914 

JUNE 1914 

MAR. 1914 

DEC. 1913 

/SEPT. 1913 

JUNE 1913 

MAR. 1913 

DEC. 1912 

'^SEPT.1912 



8 A ADV. 



8 B ADV. 



80 



7 A ADV. 



7 B ADV. 



70 



6 A ADV. 



6 B ADV. 



60 



5 A ADV, 



5 B ADV. 



50 



4 A.ADV. 



4 B ADV. 



40 



3 A ADV. 



3 B ADV. 



30 



2 A ADV. 



2 B ADV. 



8A 



8B 



7A 



7B 



6A 



6B 



5A 



5B 



4A 



4B 



3A 



3B 



2A 




UJ — I 

>• o 

JULY 1920\ ^ 



FEB. 1920 



JULY 1919' 



FEB. 1919 



FEB. 1918 



JULY 1917; 



FEB. 1917 



JULY 1916; 



FEB.1916 



JULY 1915v 



FEB. 1915 



JULY 1914; 



FEB. 1914 



JULY 1913; 



FEB. 1913 



SEPT.I912/ 



ALL YEAR PLAN 

24-12 WEEK TERMS 

OR 

288 WEEKS 



REGULAR PLAN 

16-20 WEEK TERMS 

OR 

320 WEEKS 



live side. Owing to the fact that the course of study under the all- 
year plan is divided into three sections of 12 weeks, instead of into 

96887°— 13 2 



10 



FEATUKES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 



two sections of 20 weeks, and inasmuch as our high schools are all 
now organized on the latter plan, the class that graduates from the 
all-year school on December 1 will not be able to enter the high 
school until February 1, eight weeks later. So, also, the classes that 
graduate March 1 and June 1 can not enter the high school imme- 
diately without some readjustment being made. It may be found 
desirable to make one of our four high schools an all-year school, or 
to provide for the admission into the high schools of irregular classes, 
as is done in the case of promotions from the evening elementary 
schools to the evenhig high schools, which have a longer term and 
whose graduations are not synchronous. 

Statistics of enrollment, attendance, etc., of all-year schools from June 1, 19 IB, to August 

23, 1912. 



Total enrollment 

Average enrollment 

Average attaidance 

Number who left dxiring term 

Per cent of attendance (State rule) 

Number of pupils promoted 

Number of pupils not promoted 

Per cent of pupils promoted 

Number of cases of tardiness 

Number of cases of truancy 

Number of cases of illness of pupUs attributable to school. 

Number of days illness of teachers (73 in all) 

Number of cases of quarantine, teachers and pupils 



Grammar. 



764 
703 
668 

81 

94.! 
651 

29 

95.' 
102 



Primary. 



1,695 

1,541 

1,427 

182 

92. 

1,311 

184 

88 

376 

1 



Ejnder- 
garten. 



390 
370 
302 

19 

81.3 



67 



Total. 



2,849 

2,614 

2,397 

282 

91.7 

1,962 

1213 

90.2 

545 

3 

1 

13.5 
5 



1 Reasons for nonpromotion— Irregular attendance, 43; personal illness, 0; mental incapacity, 43; physical 
defect, 5; lack of interest, 25; entered late, 12; other cause, 85; total nonpromoted, 213, or 9.8 per cent. 



COOPERATIVE INDUSTRIAL COURSES. 



York, Pa. Atreus Wanner, superintendent of city schools, Report, 
1911-12. — At a meeting of the York school board, held May 11, 1911, 
a committee was appointed to go to Fitchburg, Mass., to investigate 
the cooperative industrial course in that city. At the same time the 
manufacturers' association appointed a committee to accompany the 
representatives of the school board, with instructions to make every 
effort to ascertain all the objections that had arisen or that could be 
urged against the Fitchburg plan. 

The committees visited Fitchburg May 18, 1911, and after returning 
presented full reports of their conclusions. Both unanimously recom- 
mended the plan. 

A committee from the school board, together with the city superin- 
tendent, met and conferred with the manufacturers of York to agree 
upon a plan and outline a course of study for cooperative industrial 
education in the high school of that city. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 



11 



It was thought best to take up only one trade the first year, that 
of machinist, and to add other occupations as the course developed. 
The manufacturers whose services were enlisted reported that they 
were willing to place 80 boys who desired to learn the machinist's 
trade. 

Opportunity was then extended to all high-school boys who had 
satisfactorily passed the first year and who desired to take up the 
machinist's trade to enroll. 

These boys were permitted to express any shop preferences they 
had, but the final decision as to location was made by Mr. R. E. 
Gephart, secretary of the manufacturers' association. Boys and 
parents were referred to him. 

Course of Study. — The cooperative course extends over a period 
of four years. The first year is spent wholly in school and is intended 
to specialize somewhat in those subjects that will aid the boy in taking 
up shopwork. The next three years are devoted to part school and 
part shopwork. During the time the schools are in session each 
boy attends ever}^ alternate week. The remainder of the year, with 
the exception of two weeks in summer allowed for vacation, is spent 
in the shop. 

In school deficiencies can be made up by extra work; in the shop 
there is no such opportunity. Therefore, in order to complete the 
shop part of his course, each boy is required to work a total of 5,400 
hours, divided into six equal periods of 900 hours each. 

The following is an outliae of the course now offered: 



Third year: 

Algebra. 

English. 

Mechanism of machines. 

Mechanical drawing. 

Shop trigonometry (plane). 

Physics (heat and gas engines). 
Fourth year: 

Civics and sociology (sociology in- 
cludes relation of workingman to 
himself and employer), 

English. 

Mechanism of machines. 

Mechanical drawing and machine 
design. 

Physics (electricity and magnetism). 

Elementary mechanics and strength 
of materials. 

In arithmetic the instruction is made as practical as possible. The 
application to shop problems and business transactions is accentuated. 

Free-hand technical sketching consists of free-hand drawing of 
machine parts in orthographic projection, thus enabling the pupil to 



First year: 

Geometry. 

Algebra, 

English . 

Shop arithmetic. 

Technical sketching. 

Industrial geography (including in- 
dustrial history and vocational 
guidance). 
Second year: 

Geometry. 

Algebra. 

English. 

Mechanism of machines. 

Mechanical drawing. 

Physics. 



12 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

make free-hand sketches, and also read drawings and blue prints. 
No instruments are used the first year. 

Industrial geography, including industrial history and vocational 
guidance, has been added to the course. The pupils are required to 
make a study of a number of trades and professions, using the following 
general outline: 

1. Pay and opportunities. 

2. Conditions required for learning the trade. 

3. Educational and physical requirements. 

4. What those in the trade think of its future. 

Throughout the year pupils are required to hand in every alternate 
Monday morning a written report of the work done and facts learned 
the previous week while in the shop. This report is examined by 
the instructor for its English composition and its use of shop technique. 

Instructor. — Both manufacturers and school directors were strongly 
of the opinion that the one to be placed in charge of the department 
should be a mechanic, one fully conversant with shop methods and 
requirements; that he should have a thorough knowledge of the 
theoretical side of mechanics, and that he should be possessed of the 
teacher's personality. 

The most important part of the instructor's responsibiUty consists 
in keeping in close touch with the shopwork by inspection and through 
the foremen, and then in determining just what instruction will best 
qualify the pupil for his trade. The course has proven so popular 
that an assistant instructor has been elected. 

Wages. — The compensation, per hour, agreed upon by the manu- 
facturers, is the same for all shops. The following rates have been 
established for six periods of 900 hours each: For the first period of 
900 hours, 7 cents per hour; for the second period, 8 cents; for the 
third period, 9 cents; for the fourth period, 10| cents; for the fifth 
period, 12 cents; for the sixth period, 15 cents. 

Shop Agreement. — Owing to the fact that the work is part in school 
and part in shop, and that the school has no jurisdiction over the 
shop and the shop no jurisdiction over the school, there are a number 
of conditions that arise that are difficult to meet. These seem to be 
very satisfactorily disposed of in the following agreement entered into 
by both manufacturer and apprentice: 

Rules and Conditions 

Under whicli special apprentices taking the four-year cooperative industrial course 
at the high school of York, Pa., are received for instruction at the works of — 

First. The applicant for apprenticeship under this agreement must have satis- 
factorily met requirements for entrance to this course at the York High School. 

Second. The apprentice is to worl^ for us continuously, well and faithfully, under 
Buch rules and regulations as may prevail, at the works of the above company, for 



FEATUBES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 13 

the term of 5,400 hours, commencing with the acceptance of this agreement, in such 
capacity and on such work as specified below. 



And such other work, according to the cajpahility of the apprentice, as pertains to our branch 
of manufacturing . This arrangement of work to be binding unless changed by mutual 
agreement of all parties to this contract. 

Third. This contract becomes null and void if and when the cooperative indueti-ial 
course of the York High School is discontinued. 

Fourth, The apprentice shall report to his employer for work every alternate week 
when the York High School is in session, except during vacation periods provided 
below and he shall be paid only for actual time at such work. 

Fifth. The apprentice is to have a vacation, without pay, of two weeks each year, 
during school vacation. 

Sixth. The employer reserves the right to suspend regular work wholly, or in part, 
at any time it may be deemed necessary. 

Seventh. Should the conduct or work of the apprentice not be satisfactory to 
employer or to said high-school authorities, he may be suspended for a time, or dis- 
missed, by the employer without previous notice. The first two months of the 
apprentice's shopwork are considered a trial time. 

Eighth. Lost time at either school or shop shall be made up before the expiration 
of each period, at the rate of wages paid during said period, and no period of service 
shall commence till after all lost time by the apprentice, at either shop or school, in 
the preceding period shall have been fully made up. 

Ninth. Apprentices must purchase from time to time such tools as may be required 
for doing rapid and accurate work. 

Tenth. The said term of 5,400 hours (three-year shop term), shall be divided into 
six periods as stated below, and the compensation shall be as follows, payable on 
r^ular pay days to each apprentice : 

For the first period of 900 hours cents per hour. 

For the second period of 900 hours cents per hour. 

For the third period of 900 hours cents per hour. 

For the fourth period of 900 hours cents per hour. 

For the fiith period of 900 hours cents per hour. 

For the sixth period of 900 hours cents per hour. 

Eleventh. The above wage scale shall begin the first week the apprentice enters 
upon the first year of shop work of the high school industrial course. 

These papers, subject to the two months' trial noted in paragraph 7, shall be signed 
by the parties to the contract at the time the boy enters the shop. 

The satisfactory fulfillment of the conditions of this contract leads to a diploma, 
unless the course is discontinued, to be conferred upon the apprentice by the board 
of school directors of the school district of the city of York, Pa., upon his graduation, 
which diploma shall also be signed by an ofiicer of the company with which he served 
his apprenticeship after serving the specified time. 

Agreement. 

I, , by and with the consent of , my 

(Applicant's name in full.) (Parent or guardian's name.) 

Parent or Guardian, who evidences his consent by entering into this agreement, 

hereby request to receive me into their works, thereby giving 

(Firm's name.) 

me an opportunity of learning the trade of at my own risk of life, bodily injury, 

(Trade.) 
and health, and under and subject to the foregoing rules and conditions, to which I 
expressly agree, and which I accept as a part of this agreement, and I hereby cove- 
nant, promise, and agree, in consideration of the premises, to be bound and governed 
by said rules and conditions, and, further, to well and faithfully perform my duties. 



14 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

I consent to this agreement, and request to receive said 

(Firm's name.) 

as above, and in consideration of the premises, I, his 

(Applicant's name.) 

, hereby become responsible to as security for 

(Parent or guardian.) 

the faithful performance of this agreement. 

In witness whereof , we have hereunto set oiu* hands this day of 

, A. D. 191... 



Witness: 



(Applicant's signature.) 
(Parent or guardian's signature.) 



Agreement of Relative or Guardian. 

I, , of the above-named , do hereby 

(Parent or guardian.) (Apprentice.) 

give my consent to his entering the employ of the said upon 

(Employer.) 

the terms named in the above articles of agreement; and I further agree that in consid- 
eration of such employment the wages or earnings of my said shall be paid 

(Son or ward.) 

directly to him, and I hereby release all claim that I now have or may have hereafter 
thereto. 
Dated at this day of , 191 .. . 



(Parent or guardian.) 

Witness: 



We hereby accept the applicant as apprentice under the above rules and condi- 
tions, this day of , A. D. 191. ., 



(Firm's name.) 

Witness: 



This is to certify that the within named completed his term 

of apprenticeship. 

Enrollment. — In this course 121 pupils are enrolled; 56 in the first 
year, 43 in the second, and 27 in the third. Next year, term of 
1913-14, when the four-year course will be in full operation, the 
enrollment will probably reach 180. The total enrollment in the 
high school is 656. Of this number, 320 are boys; thus more than 
one-third of the boys are enrolled in the cooperative industrial course, 
man}^ of whom, would not now be in school were such course not 
offered. 

The trades taught and the number learning each are as follows: 
Machinist trade, 61; wooden patternmaking, 3; metal patternmak- 
ing, 2; cabinetmaking, 2; plumbing, 1; and automobile repair, 1. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 15 

Fitchhurg, Mass. Report hy W. B. Hunter, supervisor of cooperative 
industrial course. — The cooperative industrial course in the Fitch- 
burg High School, Fitchburg, Mass., is now in the fifth year of its 
existence. This course covers four years. The first, or freshman, 
year is spent in school; during the remaining three years the student 
alternates between the school and the shop or factory, spending a 
week at a time in each. Fourteen manufacturing establishments 
have cooperated with the school authorities in making the course 
possible. Apprenticeship is offered at present in the machinist's 
trade, patternmaking, sawmaking, drafting, iron molding, tinsmith- 
ing, piping, printing, textile, and office work. There is, however, no 
limit to the number of trades that may be chosen. The entrance 
requirements are the same as for the regular high-school course. 

A trial period of two months in the shop is begun at the end of the 
first year of schooling. In this way the student is enabled better to 
determine his own aptitudes and to decide whether he wishes to 
enter upon the course permanently. At the expiration of this period 
an agreement to continue is signed by parents and employer. Under 
this agreement the apprentice is to continue the course to its com- 
pletion (three years), and the employer, on his part, agrees to teach 
the apprentice the rudiments of the trade designated in the agree- 
ment. This serves as a contract between parent and manufacturer, 
and it tends to keep the boy in school and to secure for him proper 
care and treatment. 

During the sophomore year the apprentice receives 10 cents an 
hour for work in the shops; during the junior year, 11 cents an hour; 
during the senior year, 12^ cents. This amounts to $165 for the first 
year, $181.50 for the second year, and $206.25 for the third. An 
aggregate of about $15,000 is now earned by the three classes alter- 
nating between school and shop during the year. Work in the shops 
is provided during vacations. On Saturday mornings the boys who 
have been in school during the week go to the shops to familiarize 
themselves with the work that will be left by the retiring class. 

Two classes, numbering 30 pupils, have been graduated from the 
course. Of the class of 1911 four are attending the cooperative 
courses in the University of Cincinnati, continuing their studies for 
engineering or teaching. One member of the last class to graduate 
is now in Mechanics Institute, Rochester, N. Y. Graduates who have 
entered upon their respective trades earn from $2.50 to $3.50 per day. 
After graduation a boy may prepare himself for a technological course 
in college by attending the high school another year and devoting 
his study to languages and other college-required subjects. 

There are at present in the course 125 students. Of those, there 
are 47 freshmen, 28 sophomores, 28 juniors, and 22 seniors. 

By making weekly visits to the shops and by inquiring of the boys 
when in school concerning their shopwork, the director of the Indus- 



16 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

trial department is enabled to keep in touch with each boy's work. 
If any unsatisfactory condition is found, the matter is taken up with 
the proprietor or foreman, and an effort is made to correct the fault. 
A written report of the work of the previous week is required on 
Monday morning of each student. Discussion of shop problems and 
questions regarding shopwork are encouraged in the classroom. 

The studies are along such lines as will better fit the pupil to prac- 
tice his trade as a skilled workman and as a thinking mechanic; they 
are actually correlated to the trade. English is taught, so that the 
boy can discuss his work in clear language and write descriptions of it 
that can be understood. A weekly written and oral report of his 
shopwork is required to be filed for reference, to show his progress. 
His reading is directed along such lines as will acquaint him with the 
history of industry and the progress of trade and invention. The 
classics are not ignored, however, and an endeavor is made to culti- 
vate the esthetic nature. 

Schedule of Studies for the Fitchburg Cooperative Course. 

Periods 
First year (all work in school) : per week. 

English and current events 5 

Arithmetic, tables and simple shop problems 5 

Algebra 5 

Freehand and mechanical drawing and bench work 8 

Second year (school and shop work alternately): 

English 5 

Shop mathematics, algebra and geometry 5 

Physics 4 

Civics 2 

Mechanism of machines 5 

Freehand and mechanical drawing 6 

Third year (school and shop work alternately) : 

English 5 

Shop mathematics 5 

Chemistry 4 

Physics 4 

Mechanism of machines 5 

First aid to injured 1 

Freehand and mechanical drawing 6 

Fourth year (school and shop work alternately) : 

English 5 

Commercial geography and business methods 2 

Shop mathematics 4 

Mechanism of machines 4 

Physics, electricity and heat 4 

Chemistry 6 

Freehand and mechanical drawing - 5 

Hammond, Ind. G. M. McDaniel, sujyerintendent of city schools. — 
The cooperative courses at Hammond, Ind., a commercial and man- 
ufacturing city of 21,000 population, are unique in that the appren- 
tice is at work for one-half of each day and in school the remainder of 
the day. The following are the forms of the agreement under which 
the pupil enters upon an apprenticeship of four years : 



FEATUEES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 17 

Contract Between the School Board and the Employer. 

Articles of agreement made and entered into by and between the school trustees 

of the city of Hammond, Lake County, Ind., party of the first part, and , 

of the city of Hammond, Lake County, Ind., party of the second part: 

Witnesseth that whereas the board of school trustees of the city of Hammond, Lake 
County, Ind., are desirous that the boys and girls of said city may become more effi- 
cient industrially, and that more of them may be able to remain in school a longer 
period, it is therefore understood and agreed, by and between the said school board 

of the city of Hammond, Lake County, Ind., party of the first part, and , 

of the city of Hammond, Lake County, Ind., party of the second part — 

1. That certain boys and girls of said city, over the age of 14 years and under the 
age of 21 years, are to be given opportunity to devote one-half of each school day in 
attendance at school and the remaining portion to be devoted to the services and 

employment of the said , and that a copy of all contracts with the 

parents or guardian of any such school apprentice shall be approved by said school 
board and signed by the superintendent and become a part of this agreement as fully 
as though it were embodied therein. 

The party of the first part agrees — 

1. To submit a course of instruction which shall be offered in the school for the 
approval of the party of the second part, and to provide proper facilities and competent 
instructors for the teaching of said course. 

2. Not to demand the attendance of the apprentice during the time when he should 
be in the service of the party of the second part. 

3. To employe a competent vocational director who shall be familiar with the work 
of both the shop and school, whose duty it shall be to see that the terms of this contract 
are fulfilled. 

The party of the second part agrees: 

1. Not to employ a school apprentice during the time that he should be in school, 

2. To submit a course of instruction in the art or trade to which the boy or girl is to 
be apprenticed for the approval of the board of school trustees, and further agrees to 
offer this instruction to the apprentice. 

3. To allow a representative of the school trustees entrance to their establishment or 
factory at appointed times when the apprentices are employed, providing such repre- 
sentative does not interfere directly or indirectly with the work or employees. 

The term of this apprenticeship shall be four years. At the end of the apprentice- 
ship each party to this agreement shall issue a diploma to the apprentice if the work 
has been satisfactory. 

In witness whereof the said parties have hereunto set their hand and seal this 

day of , 19... 

By;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; 
By;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;" 

Superintendent of schools. 
Apprentice Contract Between Employer and Parent or Guardian. 

Entered into between the Co. of Hammond, Ind., and 

(parent or guardian) of Hammond, Lake County, Ind. 

This indenture witnesseth that , of the county of Lake and 

State of Indiana, has voluntarily, of his own free will and accord, put and bound 

, of Hammond, Lake County, Ind., to learn the art and trade 

of and as apprentice to serve from this date for and during and 

until the full end and term of four years next ensuing; during all which time the said 
apprentice shall serve his employers faithfully, honestly and industriously, all lawful 
96887*— 13 3 



18 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

commands readily obey, and demean himself in a modest, courteous and accommo- 
dating manner toward his employers and all other persons employed in and about 
the premises and business of his said employers; at all timeg protect and preserve the 
goods and property of his said employers, and not suffer any to be wasted or injured, 
and that the apprentice may acquire an education he shall attend the Hammond pub- 
lic school one-half of each day that school is in session, at such time as shall be ar- 
ranged by the employer and the school authorities, and shall employ himself about 
the premises of his employers during the time five hours per day during the full term 
of his apprenticeship, unless otherwise ordered, and the said employers shall use their 
best endeavors to teach or cause him, the said apprentice, to be taught or instructed 

in the art or trade of and to pay the said apprentice for the 

first year the sum of 10 cents per hour; for the second year of his services, the sum of 
12| cents per hour; for the third year of his services, the sum of 15 cents per hour; 
for the fourth year of his services, the sum of 17^ cents per hour. 

Beginning the second year of his apprenticeship the Co. will deposit to the 

credit of the apprentice $1 each two weeks with the treasurer of the Co. This 

money will be deposited as a joint account of the apprentice and Co. At the 

completion of the apprenticeship the entire sum to the credit of the apprentice in the 
treasury of the Co. plus |25 will be paid him.* If for any reason the appren- 
ticeship is not completed, this money reverts to the Co. The apprentice will 

be given a pass book showing the amount paid in for his account, said pass book to 
remain in his possession. It is understood that this money placed in the bank is not 
in any sense wages or payment for services rendered, but is a voluntary contribution 
by the employer, to be paid the apprentice in consideration of good behavior and the 
completion of his apprenticeship. 

At the end of his apprenticeship, a diploma will be awarded to the apprentice by 

the Co., stating that he has served the full term of apprenticeship and giving 

his status as a workman, and he shall at once be put on the pay roll at $15 per week 

and should said be in the employ of the Co. when he 

arrives at the age of 21 years, he shall at once be put on the pay roll at the regular 
journeyman's wages. 

In case the Co., by reason of destruction of or injury to their buildings or 

their machinery by fire, explosion, necessity for repairs, disturbance of business by 
strike, or by any calamity or other cause beyond their control, shall find it necessary 
to shut down their plant or suspend business in the whoxC or any part during such time 
of suspension the Co. shall not be liable for wages or damages. 

And should the said apprentice fail in any of the above requirements to faithfully 

perform the duties, trusts, and obligations required of him then the Co. may, 

if they see fit, discharge the aforesaid apprentice and this contract at once beconie null 
and void. 

Apprentice's signature, 

Address, 

Age, 

Signed 

Per 

Witnesses: 



We (1) (parents or guardian) agree that our (son or ward) 

shall serve the Co. upon terms specified above. 

Witness my hand and seal this day of , 19 . . . 

Signature of parents, 

or guardian, 

Approved by the trustees of the school, city of Hammond, this day of . . '. 

By •r.-rr.r. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 19 

Lansing, Mich. E. P. Cummings, superintendent of city schools. — 
Lansing is a manufacturing city, and its interests center more in the 
automobile industries and the manufacture of gas engines with 
accessories than any other single Une. 

After a personal investigation of the industrial cooperative work in 
the public schools of Fitchburg, Mass., and a study of this plan as inau- 
gurated by Dr. Schneider, of the University of Cincinnati, we started 
a similar course September, 1912. This course was taken in charge 
by a practical and experienced man, who was of a fairly liberal 
education, and had not only served several years at his trade, but had 
also had experience in teaching. 

Arrangements are made with two automobile companies, and other 
concerns of the city, whereby boys in this course, after one year's 
work at school, are received as apprentices in shops. From that 
time on their work is equally divided between the school and the 
shop. A carefully prepared agreement or contract is entered into 
and signed both by the boy and by the employing institution, whereby 
the apprentice is to receive certain instruction and wages at a speci- 
fied rate, while on the other hand he is to give certain specified serv- 
ices to the employer. 

The course is apparently working well. A beginnmg class of some 
20 pupils is now taking the school work, and will start in the factory 
at the close of the present school year in June. The object of this 
course is not only to provide a rational course of study for that ele- 
ment of our pupils who desire specific preparation for a trade, but 
also to serve a purpose in the performance of the school's duty to 
the industries and to society. 

We have already found 2 boys who the year before made an abject 
failure of the regular high-school course, but now are enthusiastic 
leaders in the work of the industrial department. Present indica- 
tions are that this work will be a decided success at Lansing. 

Beverly, Mass. R. 0. Small, superintendent, report, 1912. — Our 
school has reached the stage of success from the factory point of 
view, and substantial improvement and visible strength from the 
school standpoint. 

The noticeable achievement of the year was the graduation of our 
first class (14 boys). The attention received from the public upon 
this occasion demonstrated the place which the school has taken in 
the community. It has been accepted and indorsed as an institution 
worthy of support. 

The wage-earning capacity of these boys when they entered the 
school is conservatively estimated at $6 per week. 

A capitalization of the boy's economic value to the community, 
based on his wage-earning power at the time of entering the school, 



20 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

may be placed approximately at $6,000. Six dollars per week for 50 
weeks equals $300, or 5 per cent on $6,000. 

The wage-earning capacity of these boys at the time of graduation 
ranged from $15 to $18 per week. 

A similar capitalization of the boy's economic value based on the 
wage-earning experience of the 14 boys graduated gives a figure 
between $15,000 and $18,000; it varies with the individual. Fifteen 
dollars per week for 50 weeks equals $750, or 5 per cent on $15,000. 
Eighteen dollars per week for 50 weeks equals $900, or 5 per cent on 
$18,000. 

When we sent these boys out into the factory on full time, it had 
cost the municipahty and the State a little over $11,200 to maintain 
the school. The net cost to the city of Beverly was $5,600. The 
wages paid back to all the boys, and returned to the community 
during the same period, had amounted to a little over $10,000. 

Giving no consideration to the remaining boys (56 in various stages 
of preparedness), and estimating the total cost as the price paid to 
place 14 boys in the shop as skilled workmen, the cost is shown to be 
$800 per boy. 

The expenditure of $800 per boy had raised the capitalization of 
his economic value from $6,000 to $15,000 or $18,000; a 13 per cent 
investment in 2 J years had increased the capital 150 to 200 per cent. 
We had left an active ''stock in process" (56 boys in various stages 
of preparedness for the trade) and the prospects of a very much larger 
capitalization as 3^ears go by and the graduates become more skilled. 
During the two and one-half years the community had been profiting 
by over $10,000 in wages earned by members of the school. 

In the world of finance an investment of this kind would be con- 
sidered very favorably. I submit it as a very interesting problem 
in deferred dividends. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 



21 



HOME STUDY. 

Sacramento, Cal. 0. W. Erlewine, superintendent of city schools. — ■ 
In Sacramento all required home study has been abolished, and more 
time is given in school for the preparation of lessons. The programs 
showing the lesson schedule and time schedules which are used in 
carrymg out the idea are as follows : 

Sacramento, Cal., January, 1913. 
Time schedule (daily), primary grades. 



First and second. 


Third, fourth, and fifth. • 


Time. 


Periods. 


Time. 


Periods. 


9.00- 9.10 


Opening. 


9.00- 9.10 


Opening. 


9.10- 9.25 


Period 1. 


9.10- 9.30 


Period 1. 


9.25- 9.30 


Physical train- 


9.30- 9.50 


Period 2. 




mg. 


9.50-10.10 


Period 3. 


9.30- 9.45 


Period 2. • 


10.10-10.15 


Physical train- 


9.45-10.00 


Period 3. 




ing. 


10.00-10.05 


Physical train- 


1015-10.35 


Period 4. 




ing. 


10.35-11.00 


Recess. 


10.05-10.20 


Period 4. 


11.00-11.20 


Period 5, 


10.20-10.35 


Period 5. 


11.20-11.40 


Period 6. 


10.35-11.00 


Recess. 


11.40-12.00 


Period 7. 


11.00-11.15 


Period 6. 


12.00- 1.00 


Noon. 


11.15-11.30 


Period 7. 


l.OO- 1.10 


Opening. 


11.30- 1.00 


Noon. 


I.IO- 1.30 


Period 8. 


l.OO- 1.05 


Opening. 


1.30- 1.50 


Period 9. 


1.05- 1.20 


Period 8. 


1.50- 2.10 


Period 10. 


1.20- 1.35 


Period 9. 


2.10- 2.20 


Physical train- 


1.35- 1.45 


Physical train- 




mg. 




ing. 


2.20- 2.40 


Period 11. 


1.45- 2.00 


Period 10. 


2.40- 3.00 


Period 12. 


2.00- 2.15 


Period 11. 






2.15- 2.30 


Period 12. 







Lesson schedule {weekly), primary grades. 



Studies. 



Reading 

Language and composition . . 

Arithmetic i 

Spelling 

Penmanship 

History 

Geography 2 

Nature study 

Drawing 

Music 3 

Manual training 

Conduct 

Length of period, in minutes. 

Periods available 

Recitations, each class 

Study periods available 

Study periods required 



First 

A-A and 

B-B. 



13-13 
3-3 
1 
2 
5 
2 



4 

4 

4 

5 

1 

15 

60-15 

44-15 

16-15 

e)(^) 



Second 

A-A and 

B-B. 



12-12 
3-3 
2 
3 
5 
2 



4 

4 

4 

5 

1 

15 

60-15 

45-15 

15-15 



Third 

A-A and 

B-B. 



6-6 

5-5 

5-5 

4 

5 

2 

1 

3 

3 

3 

4 

1 

20 

60-20 

42-20 

18-20 

15 



Fourth 

A-A and 

B-B. 



5-5 

5-5 

5-5 

4 

5 

2 

2 

3 

3 

3 

4 

1 

20 

60-20 

42-20 

18-20 

18 



Fifth 

A-A and 

B-B. 



5-5 

5-5 

5-5 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

3 

4 

1 

20 

60-20 

41-20 

19-20 

19 



> In first and second grades, time to be given to number sense training. 

* First and second grades, geography taught with nature study. 
» Afternoon sessions begun with music during opening period. 

* Teachers of the first and second gi-ades will begin to train pupils for study. Study periods required- 
Third grade, reading 6, spelling 4, and arithmetic 5. Fourth grade— Language 4, reading 5, spelling 4, and 
arithmetic 5. Fifth grade— Languagij and geography 3 each, reading and arithmetic 5 each, and spell- 
ing 3. 

* Physical training exercises are to be strictly observed according to time schodulo. 



22 



FEATUEES IK CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 
Time schedule {daily), grammar grades. 



Time. 


Periods. 


Time. 


Periods. 


9.00- 9.10 


Opening. 


1.00- 1.10 


Opening. 


9.10- 9.40 


Period 1. 


1.10- 1.40 


Period 6. 


9.4O-10.10 


Period 2. 


1.40- 2.10 


Period 7. 


10.10-10.15 


Physical train- 


2.10- 2.15 


Physical train- 




ing. 




ing. 


10.15-10.45 


Period 3. 


2.15- 2.45 


Period 8. 


10.45-11.00 


Recess. 


2.45- 3.15 


Period 9. 


11.00-11.30 


Period 4. 






11.30-12.00 


Noon. 







Lesson schedule {weekly), grammar grade 



Sixth. 



A and 
B 



Seventh. 



A. 



A and 
B. 



Eighth. 



A. 



A and 
B. 



Arithmetic 

Grammar , 

Composition 

History and civics 

Reading and literature 

Geogi'aphy 

Spelling and penmanship 2 . 

General science 

Drawing 

Musics 

Manual training < 

Length of recitation period . 

Available periods 

Recitations, each class * 

Study periods available 

Study periods required 



1 No home study demanded. 

2 Divide each period between penmanship and spelling. 

3 Afternoon opening periods given to music four times a week by class teachers and once to talks on 
conduct by principal or class teacher. 

^ Woodwork in all grades for boys. Sewing in sixth and A seventh, and cooking in B seventh and 
eighth for girls. 
5 Physical training exercises must be strictly observed. 

Study periods required. 





Sixth. 


Seventh. 


Eighth. 




A. 


B. 


A. 


B. 


A. 


B. 


Arithmetic ... . . 


4 
2 
3 
3 
3 
1 


4 
2 
3 
3 
3 
1 


4 

I 

3 
3 

1 
1 


4 
2 
3 
3 
3 
1 
1 


4 
2 
3 
3 
3 
1 
1 


4 


GraTrnnar.. ,. 


2 


History and civics ... . 


3 


Geography 


3 


Reading and literatine . . 


3 


Spelling 


1 




1 










Total 


16 


16 


17 


17 


17 


17 







Meriden, Conn. David Gihhs, superintendent of city schools. — The 
amount of home study in the Meriden grammar and high schools is 
being reduced, while more study is being required in schools under 
the direct supervision of the teachers of the various subjects. 



FEATUKES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 23 

HONOR LEAGUE. 

Lynchburg, Va. W. M. Black, principal of high school. — An Honor 
League was organized in the Lynchburg High School in 1909 by the 
alumni of the high school who were in attendance at the University 
of Virginia, where the honor system prevails. 

Representatives were chosen from each class in the high schools to 
draft a constitution, the pledge reading: 

We, the undersigned, do hereby pledge that we will neither give nor receive assist- 
ance on any written test whatsoever and will do our best to promote honor in the 
Lynchburg High School. 

If a pupil is seen cheating he is not reported to the principal, 
but a committee of the league goes to him and warns him that 
the honor of the school does not permit cheating. If he does not 
heed the warning, he is brought before the executive committee of 
the Honor League and a committee of his own class and given an 
opportunity to prove his innocence. The accused may have wit- 
nesses in his or her defense. If adjudged guilty, the executive com- 
mittee recommends that he or she be suspended or punished in 
some manner by the principal and faculty, who cooperate but do 
not interfere with the plans of the league. xVny conduct that affects 
the honor of the school becomes a matter for investigation by a com- 
mittee of the league. 

IMPROVEMENT OF TEACHERS. 

Quincy, lU. E. G. Bauman, superintendent of city schools. — In 
May, 1911, Supt. E. G. Bauman submitted to the board of educa- 
tion a schedule setting forth a standard of professional training and 
minimum requirements, together with a salary scale commensurate 
therewith. In accordance with his recommendation the schedule 
was approved unanimously by the board and became effective at 
once. At a conference between Supt. Bauman and Prof. J. E. 
McGilvrey, of the department of education of the Western Illinois 
State Normal School, arrangements were made whereby the State 
Normal might offer instruction to classes of Quincy teachers by 
sending to Quincy at regular periods members of the faculty to 
teach the classes thus organized. About 75 teachers enrolled for 
the work and they met every Friday afternoon for the purpose of 
receiving instruction in psychology and the principles of teaching. 
More than 60 of these teachers enrolled at the summer session of 
the State Normal School and several more attended the summer 
session at other professional schools. Nearly 20 of the teachers 
finished the required work at the State Normal School last summer 
and received their diplomas. As many more will complete the 
work and receive diplomas during the summer of 1913. About 75 



24 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

teachers are now organized in classes and are receiving instruction 
on Thursday and Friday afternoons of each week from faculty 
members of the State Normal School. Instruction is being given 
in psychology, principles of teaching, history of education, sociology, 
physiography, and geography method. 

The results have been so satisfactory that the teachers as a body 
have become enthusiastic and inspired with a desire to further 
their professional advancement. All of which means that in a very 
short time every teacher in the Quincy schools wdll be a graduate 
of a State normal or some other professional training school. The 
movement has raised very noticeably the standard of the work that 
is done in the schools. 

Trenton, N. J. Ehenezer Mackey, superintendent of city schools. — 
A feature in the Trenton schools is the system of extension courses 
of study through which the teachers take work for a college degree 
under professors or instructors of the University of Pennsylvania or 
of Columbia University. Courses are maintained in such subjects 
as sociology, psychology, methods of teaching, English, and Ger- 
man. As many as 65 per cent of the Trenton teachers have been 
enrolled in one year as students in these extension courses. Teach- 
ers of exceptional skill and efficiency who pursue such advanced 
professional courses of study are eligible to four special increments 
in salary, amounting to $160. Any teacher may have leave of 
absence for a year of study, for educational travel, or for the benefit 
of her health without forfeiture of salary, except the pay of a sub^ 
stitute at the salary of a beginning teacher. 

Gloucester, Mass. Freeman Putney, superintendent of dty schools. — 
A ''Teachers' lecture course^' is making itself felt in Gloucester and 
in adjacent towns. One lecture each month is given in this course, 
on Friday afternoons, the schools closing on each lecture afternoon 
to enable the teachers to attend. It is supported by such people 
of the district as see in it a valuable privilege and are eager to avail 
themselves of it. A merely nominal charge, $1 for the series of eight 
lectures, is made to meet the expense of securing eminent talent. 

The lectures are intended to be inspirational rather than peda- 
gogical in character. By having the lectures in the afternoon, all 
the teachers can be present. 

Monnessen, Pa. H. E. Gress, superintendent of city schools. — For 
the past two years a series of lectures on literature and education 
has been given the teachers by an instructor in the West Virginia 
University. This year arrangements were made so that those 
teachers who wished to take work for college credit could do so under 
the direction of the instructor. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 25 

Trinidad, Colo. J. R. Morgan, superintendent of city schools. — 
In order to have teachers do a certain amount of reading along 
professional lines, the Board of Education of Trinidad, Colo., passed 
a resolution to the effect that no certificate would be renewed unless 
the teacher had done a minimum amount of professional work each 
year preceding the expiration of her certificate. Fewer teachers 
will be dropped from the list, as all of them have become interested 
in various lines of professional study. 

Bozeman, Mont. R. J. Cunningham, superintendent of city 
schools. — Beginning with the summer of 1913, teachers are required 
to attend a summer school of recognized standing one summer in each 
four. The rule imphes that a teacher must submit a certificate 
showing that she received credit for at least two courses while in 
attendance at the summer school. 

Sedalia, Mo. J. P. Gass, superintendent of city schools. — For the 
last three years there has been an extension class for the teachers of 
the grade schools, conducted by the Warrensburg Normal for the 
benefit of the teachers of Sedaha, and for the last two years an exten- 
sion class has been conducted by the University of Missouri for the 
benefit especially of the teachers of the high school and others. 
Credits toward graduation are given by both these institutions to 
those who complete a course and take the examination. 

Schenectady, N. Y. A. R. Bruhacher, superintendent of city schools. — 
To promote the standard of teaching, the teachers of Schenectady 
are allowed a sabbatical year for study and travel with one-third 
payment of salary. The conditions are as follows : The teacher must 
map out a course of study in some recognized institution of learning 
and have it approved by the superintendent of schools in advance. 
In cases of travel, her itinerary must be approved in the same way. 
A teacher may have such sabbatical year once in ten years, and in 
exceptional cases once in seven years. 

Each teacher accepting such leave of absence agrees to teach in 
the Schenectady schools for at least three years. If she fails to return 
after the leave of absence, she refunds the amount of salary advanced. 
If she leaves after less than three years' service, she refunds a pro 
rata amount of the salary advanced. These provisions have been 
accepted by many of the Schenectady teachers. 

Council Bluffs, Iowa. J. H. Beveridge, superintendent of city 
schools. — Every teacher in the elementary schools is required to give 
a model lesson with her own pupils before the other teachers of the 
building with which she teaches. She may select her own subject 
for presentation, the idea being that no opportunity will then be 
given to the teacher to excuse herseK because she would rather have 
presented some other subject. 
96887°— 13 4 



26 FEATUBES IIST CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

CARING FOR THE PUPILS' HEALTH. 

Chicago, El. Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, superintendent of the Chicago 
public schools, report, 1912. — ^Upon no single question do more letters 
of inquiry come to the superintendent than upon that of sex hygiene. 
The burden of the letters is in regard to a scientific basis of instruction. 
It was decided in the latter part of the year not to attempt any 
instruction on the subject in the high schools. But on the 1st day 
of May the board adopted the following recommendation, which was 
presented by Dean Walter T. Sumner, chairman of the committee 
on sex hygiene: 

The committee on sex hygiene reports that there is widespread belief that special 
instruction should be given in the city on the question of sex hygiene, and that the 
best way to approach this matter, in the interest of the children in the public schools 
at the present time, is through the parents. It therefore recommends that $2,500 be 
set aside for the teaching of sex hygiene to the parents of th* children of the public 
schools of Chicago, to be distributed as follows: $1,000 to be used during the present 
school year in securing physicians to give two lectures in school buildings to parents, 
the physicians to be selected by the committee on sex hygiene and the superintendent 
of schools, and the remainder of the money to be devoted to the same purpose in the 
fall of 1912. 

Steps were taKen immediately to have 20 courses of 2 lectures 
each dehvered in various parts of the city. There were present at 
the first 20 lectures 907 adults, and at the second 20, 1,303 adults. 
The lectures to men were given in the evening; to women in the after- 
noon. Three of the women physicians were qualified to explain in 
language other than Enghsh — Russian, PoHsh, Bohemian. Several 
physicians reported a personal interest on the part of the parents 
which led them to seek advice after the close of the lectures. Many 
mothers brought their httle children with them to the lectures. It 
has been suggested that it would have been well to invite parents to 
bring their older children with them, because the lecture heard by 
parent and child would form a subject of conversation that might 
not otherwise be broached by the parent. 

Birmingham, Ala. J . H. Phillips, superintendent of city schools, 
special report, 1912. — The following outlines of the afternoon lectures 
to mothers have been prepared by Dr. J. S. McLester, medical inspec- 
tor of the schools and a member of the committee on extension courses. 
These outlines are intended as a guide to indicate the general char- 
acter of each lecture and in no sense as a restriction upon the lecturer: 

Lecture I. 

Relation of mother to chUdfrom conception until the age of entering school. 

(a) The physiology of pregnancy. 

(&) The obligations of the mother to the unborn child. 

(c) Prenatal influences. 

(d) The laws of heredity. 

(e) The age at which most children receive sex enlightenment and its usual sources. 
(/) The mother's duty to anticipate with suitable instruction these influences. 

(g) The first lessons in sex enlightenment. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 27 

Lecture II. 

The normal phenomena of adolescence, 

(a) Reproduction our highest and most sacred function. 
(6) The significance of menstruation and its physiology. 

(c) The fallacy of the current belief that continence is harmful; its necessity and 

value. 

(d) The consequences of abuse and unethical exercise of the reproductive functions. 

(e) The social diseases and the widespread suffering caused by them both in the 

guilty and in the innocent. 

(J) The material as weU as moral value of clean thoughts, reading, and conversa- 
tion, and the beneficial influence of physical exercise. 

(g) The parents' duty to teach frankly these facts to the adolescent boy or girl. 

Lecture III. 

The hygiene of the hx)me, 

(a) Cleanliness, apparent and real. 

(6) Food — kind, amount, preparation. 

(c) Fresh air — its value in promoting health and in preventing disease. 

{d) Tuberculosis in its relation to the home. 

(e) Typhoid fever in its relation to the home. 

(/) Scarlet fever and other infectious diseases in their relation to the home. 

Ig) Notable disease carriers — the mosquito, the bedbug, the fly, the rat. 

Lecture IV. 

The problem of the child. 

(a) His nervous system and early training. 
(6) The value of sleep. 

[c) His exercise. 

[d) Food. 

ParJcershurg, W. Va. Ira B. Bush, superintendent of city schools. — To 
incorporate the subject of sex hygiene in the course of study boys and 
girls were taught in separate classes. When once begun this part of 
the course became the part least subject to sentimentality, and its effect 
was not morbid but elevating. A study of reproduction in the lower 
orders of plant and animal life was used to introduce the subject. 
Several books were used for reference. Talks were given by the 
teachers and by eminent physicians — a woman physician for the girls 
and a man for the boys. The talks of the physicians were confined 
to the care of the health as affected by the sex organs. 

St. Cloudy Minn. C. H. Barnes, superintendent of city schools. — 
Just at present the schools are conducting a '^good-health" campaign. 
Lectures are being given in the various schools on some phase of the 
subject by some 25 of the leading professional men and club women. 
The city is to have a good-health week at Arbor Day season and a 
general cleaning up will be carried on. The pulpit, press, homes, 
county medical association, ladies' clubs, moving-picture shows, etc., 
are cooperating. Essays will be written by the pupils and the best 
ones published in the local papers. 



28 FEATUKES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

New Orleans, La. J. M. Gwinn, superintendent of city scJiools. — 
As a part of the cooperative work carried on by Tulane University 
and the pubHc schools, all senior students of the City Normal School 
are required to take a course of three hours a week in school hygiene, 
given by three specialists from the university who go to the normal 
school to give the course. In connection with this work a sanitary 
survey of all public-school buildings in the city is planned. This 
survey will be made by the pupils of the senior class of the normal 
school, under the direction of Dr. Creighton Wellman, professor of 
hygiene in Tulane University, and Dr. Edmund Moss, chief medical 
inspector for the public schools. 

The physical welfare of the child has received special attention 
during the past two years. In addition to the usual provisions for 
medical examination, under the direction of the department of 
school hygiene, through the liberality of the members of the Lou- 
isiana State Dental Association, without expense to the school board, 
the teeth of the children have been given a thorough examination by 
qualified dentists, some 30 or 40 dentists having participated in the 
examination. Full charts and reports have been made of these 
examinations and free dental services rendered in Tulane University 
dental clinic to all who could not afford to pay for such service. 
Reputable oculists have volunteered to examine the eyes of 
children, and free glasses are supplied by a local business firm to 
all who are too poor to pay and who apply to the firm with the pre- 
scription of the oculist and with the approval of the chief medical 
inspector of the public schools. 

Des Moines, Iowa. W. 0. Riddell, superintendent of city scJiools. — 
There is no medical inspection in the schools of Des Moines. Instead, 
five trained nurses spend their entire time in looking after the health 
of the children in the schools and in many homes. 

Elyria, Ohio. W. R. Comings, superintendent of city schools. — The 
Elyria Board of Education began the medical inspection of school 
children four years ago, under competent physicians. Much good 
resulted, but there was a large failure in getting indifferent parents 
to heed the somewhat formal notices and requests. This year a 
trained nurse is getting far better results, because she follows cases 
up and convinces the parents of the needs, and shows them how to 
proceed. She has succeeded in getting the dentists to take their 
turns in treating the indigent, and she has also secured the opening 
of the local hospital for a free dispensary on Fridays, after school. 
From 5 to 25 appear there weekly for help. 

Reading, Pa. C. 8. Foos, superintendent of city schools. — The 
school physician, as medical inspector, has no authority in his official 
capacity to do anything more than to examiae the report. That 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 29 

medical inspection can only reach its greatest efficiency when the 
doctor's work is followed up by that of the nurse was fully demon- 
strated in March, 1911, wiien medical inspection was supplemented 
with the services of a school nurse. The nurse visits the homes to 
report the result of the exandination and advises parents when neces- 
sary, not recommending particular physicians, but explaining the 
kind of treatment needed and how it may be had; explains to indigent 
parents how the various dispensaries and hospitals of the city may 
be used; treats contagious eye and skin diseases and other simple 
maladies; also visits the homes for the purpose of giving instruction, 
especially regarding pediculosis, and to reduce the large number of 
pupils absent under the pretense of illness. The number of cases of 
illness among the pupils reported by the teachers has gradually 
lessened since the advent of the school nurse. 

Everett, Wash. C. R. Frazier, superintendent of city scJiools. — One 
of the distinctive features of the Everett schools has been developed 
m the matter of physical education, daily exercises in all the grade 
schools, involving movements and exercises to develop all parts of 
the body. Folk games to develop grace and ease and lightness upon 
the feet, breathing and flexing exercises, and drills of various kinds 
are carried on indoors with windows open wide. In the spring and 
fall on pleasant da}^ children in many instances pass outdoors for 
these exercises, and a free outdoor recess is permitted in the middle 
of the forenoon each day. Kegular gymnasium classes for boys and 
girls separately are carried on in the high-school gymnasium for the 
benefit of high-school pupils. 

Outdoor activities of a healthful and stimulating sort are encour- 
aged under an organization fostered by the schools and by friends of 
the school, who have organized ''The public school athletic league." 
This league offers buttons and badges for all who reach a certain 
standard in such exercises as chinning the bar, running broad jump, 
running high jump, 100-yard dash, relay racing, etc. Girls' games 
of indoor baseball played out of doors and other suitable activities 
for girls are also encouraged by the athletic league. These are con- 
ducted in such a way as to secure the participation of practically all 
the students who have reached a suitable age. 

WiTkinshurg , Pa. J . A. Allison, superintendent of city schools. — 
We have formed an organization called the ''Mouth hygiene work- 
ers," composed of dentists, teachers, and philanthropic workers. We 
have secured a tooth powder and paste that we furnish to the children 
at a nominal cost and have a few cents profit on each package, which 
profit is used to pay for dental work of children whose parents are not 
able to bear this expense. 

The dentists are in cooperation, and for every dollar spent toward 
educating the people in caring for their teeth the dentists will do an 



30 FEATURES IK CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

equal amount of work for worthy children who are poor. Besides 
having the children interested in their teeth, in many instances every 
child in a grade owns a toothbrush and uses it. As a reward for 
having a brush and using it, we give checks or credit ; for every five 
of these credits children receive a package of powder or paste which 
also contains a check, and when five are received from purchased 
packages, those five checks procure another package. So with each 
package sold or given, an opportunity is given to secure other 
packages free. 

The children are very much interested in the care of their teeth and 
more children have visited the dentists this year than in any five 
previous years. The appearance of the children proves the us fulness 
of this plan. 

JANITOR SERVICE. 

Houston, Tex. P. W. Horn, superintendent of city schools, report, 
1911-12. — Houston, in attempting to solve the problem of janitor 
service, requires a monthly report on janitors from each principal, 
who is required to give his opinion of his janitor's work in grades, 
thereby keeping the '^business representative" constantly informed. 

These reports are filed for record, and are used in connection with 
the report made by the inspection committee of the school board at 
the close of each year's work. Twenty-one different points of cleanli- 
ness, as it relates to janitor's service, are carefully considered, such as 
floors, walls, ceilings, windows, stoves and piping, transoms, casings, 
desks and ink wells, blackboards and their surroundings, wainscoting, 
supply lockers, cloakrooms, stairways, toilet systems, yards, etc. 

In making inspections, a grade is given on each point, and the 
reports are filled as the inspection progresses. It is possible for a 
janitor to make a score of 105 points. 



LITERARY AND CLUB WORK. 

Galion, Oliio, I. 0. Guinther, superintendent of city schools. — The 
daily program of the high school is divided into 7 periods of 45 minutes 
each and one of 35 minutes. Four periods in the forenoon and three 
in the afternoon are devoted to regular recitations and study periods. 
The last period of 35 minutes in the day is devoted to miscellaneous 
pursuits, as follows: On Monday to a literary program, in which each 
pupil member comes before the whole high school at least once in the 
year. On Tuesday the time is given to chorus practice under the direc- 
tion of the supervisor of music. On Wednesday the school continues 
chorus practice under one of the high-school instructors. At these prac- 
tices the school works out the choruses of the standard oratorios. On 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 31 

Thursday the time is given to literary clubs. These clubs consist of 
the boys and the girls in each class organized separately. Each club 
is in charge of a regular instructor of the high school. Pupils are thus 
engaged in parliamentary practice and are induced to discuss problems 
of the day, m morals, health, sanitation, and the ideals of life and 
service. Matters pertaining to sex are discussed in ways which are 
not possible when both sexes are present. Friday is given to class 
meetings, to making up recitations, and to other work that must be 
done in all high schools. 

Grand Rapids, Mich. W. A, Greeson, superintendent of city 
scliools. — Social centers have been established and successfully con- 
ducted in six of the public grade schools under the direction of a 
supervisor employed by the board of education. He and the super- 
intendent of schools select the workers in the social centers. The 
needs and desires of each neighborhood are discussed and the activi- 
ties arranged so as to meet these needs and desires. 

Among the activities may be mentioned chorus singing, gymnastic 
recreation, sewing classes for mothers, classes in domestic science for^ 
mothers, dramatics, minstrel shows, boxing matches, debating socie- 
ties, illustrated lectures, and motion pictures. 

The social centers are in operation during the five winter months. 
The workers in the social centers are usually paid for their services, 
but in some cases volunteers are secured. The supervisor of the 
social centers during the rest of the school year has charge of the 
boys' athletics in the public schools, and during the summer months 
he has charge of the pubhc playgrounds. 



PROMOTION OF TEACHERS ON QUALIFICATIONS AND 

EFFICIENCY. 

AsJieville, N. C. R. J. Tighe, superintendent of city schools, report, 
1911-12. — Grade teachers are classified according to their qualifica- 
tion for the work. Ehgibihty to entrance into any class is based 
upon scholarship, professional training, experience, and success. 
Ranked in their order of importance, these qualifications are as fol- 
lows : 

1. Success, involving personality and schoolroom efficiency. 

2. Educational preparation, as shown in professional, cultural, and 
academic training. 

3. Experience, considering grade and length of teaching service. 
Class A consists of (1) graduates of an approved university or 

normal college, with three or more yeara' successful experience in a 
city graded system of known efficiency; (2) teachers whose native 
aptitude and uniform teaching success and personal worth give them 



32 FEATURES IK CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS^. 

first rank in the estimation of the superintendent and the school 
committee. To be eligible to this class, said teachers must have 
taught five years in the Asheville schools, or its equivalent in a good 
city system, and present evidences of systematic work and study 
under some person or institution of accredited worth. Teachers of 
class A having strong administrative and supervising ability are eli- 
gible to principalships in elementary schools. Those in class A (1) 
who have specialized in some subject or department are eligible to 
high-school work or to special supervision. 

Class B consists of (1) graduates of an approved normal school or 
college who have had two or more years' experience in city school 
work; (2) undergraduates of an approved normal school or college 
(not less than two years counted) who have had three or more years' 
successful experience in city graded work; (3) teachers whose native 
aptitude, personal worth, and success in teaching give them second 
rank in the estimation of the superintendent and the school commit- 
tee. To be eligible to the last-named class (3) teachers must have 
taught four years in the Asheville schools and present evidences of 
self-directed or other work, leading to increased power and breadth 
of culture. Teachers of this class (B) may be advanced to class A 
when the conditions of said class are fully met. 

Class C consists of (1) graduates of the Asheville or other approved 
high schools, who have had two or more years' undergraduate work 
in an approved normal school or college; (2) teachers who in the 
estimation of the superintendent and the school committee rank third 
in schoolroom efficiency. Teachers of this class (C) may be advanced 
to either class B or class A upon meeting the conditions of those 
classes. 

Beaver Falls, Pa. C. C. Green, superintendent of city schools, 
report, 1911-12. — The elements to be considered in determining a 
teacher's fitness for increase in salary are as follows: 

1. Evidence of growth in schoolroom efiiciency. 

2. Evidence of growth in scholarship. 

3. Evidence of growth in the theory of teaching. 

The superintendent keeps an efficiency record of all teachers. 
Successful experience and fitness for increase in salary are determined 
by the board of directors and based upon the report of the members 
of the board and the superintendent's efficiency record. 

Owenshoro, Ky. J. H. Risley, superintendent of city schools, report, 
1911-12. — The essential things taken into consideration by the super- 
intendent of Owensboro in the promotion of teachers are education, 
experience, training, and success. To carry out this idea the follow- 
ing classification has been adopted by the board of education; 



I 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 33 

Class C. 

To be eligible to class C, a teacher must have the following qualifications: 

1. Graduation from an accredited high school or recognized equivalent. 

2. A minimum of 20 weeks' study in some standard normal school or college. The 
course must include some observation work or practice teaching. 

3. A State or city certificate. 

Class B. 

To be eligible to class B, the teacher must have the following qualifications: 

1. Graduation from an accredited high school or recognized equivalent. 

2. A minimum of 36 weeks' study in a standard normal school or college. At least 
one-fourth of this work must be along professional lines and must include both observa- 
tion work and practice teaching. 

3. Experience of 27 months or more in Owensboro city school or schools of equal 
standing. 

4. A success grade of 85 or above. 

5. A State or city certificate. 

Class A. 

To be eligible to class A, the teacher must have the following qualifications: 

1. Graduation from an accredited high school or recognized equivalent. 

2. Graduation from an accredited normal school or college requiring at least a two 
years' course above the accredited high school. One-fourth of this work must be 
along professional lines and must include at least 20 weeks of observation work and 
practice teaching. 

3. Experience, 45 months or more in Owensboro schools or schools of equal sending. 

4. A success grade of 95 or above. 

5. A life State diploma or certificate. 

Class B carries $15 more per month than class C for grades 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, and $12.50 
more for grades 2, 3, 4, 

Class A carries $10 more per month than class B for grades 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, and $7.50 
more for grades 2, 3, 4. 



PROMOTION OF PUPILS. 

Maiden, Mass. C. H. Dempsey, superintendent of city schools, 
report, 1912. — For some years semiannnual promotions have been in 
force up to the eighth grade. Two years ago it was voted by the 
school board to extend this plan until it should continue through 
the high school. On January 29, 1912, the first midyear class passed 
from the ninth grade into the high school, and hereafter classes will 
enter twice a year. 

More rapid average progress has been possible with semiannual 
promotions than with promotions once a year, owing to the smaller 
portion of work to be skipped or repeated. In the school year 
1909-10 the number not promoted in the elementary schools was 8.9 
per cent of the whole niunber enrolled; in 1910-11, the number not 
promoted was 8.4 per cent. The report for February, 1912, shows 
7.9 per cent not promoted, and 6.1 per cent receiving double promo- 



34 FEATURES IK CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

tion, a decided gain within two years. Unfortunately we have no 
previous records of double promotion for comparison. 

The course of study hitherto followed has been steadily progressive, 
with comparatively equal allotments of advance work in all subjects 
for each half year, introduced by a brief review of the work of the 
precedmg grade. Consequently, there has been no half-year that 
could be skipped by the quicker pupils without serious loss. On the 
other hand, the course being based upon the average ability of the 
class, there has been no half-year distinctly designed to aid retarded 
or slower children by thorough review and drill on the essential 
elements of important subjects, while they are still progressing 
beyond their previous attainments. These children have been 
obliged either to advance continually faster 'than they ought, or to 
drop back and repeat work they have already done, at best a dull 
and uninteresting task. To remedy these defects without creating 
others still more serious, and to do it in a practical way that would 
not involve the schools in an expensive and complicated organization, 
has been one of the chief problems confronting the s.uperintendent 
and principals during the past year. The plan of reorganization 
adopted has been in active operation since September, but its full 
effects will not be felt for two or three years. 

Under the revised plan, the course of study is intentionally made 
irregular, instead of regular, in progression. The first half of the 
third, sixth, and ninth years of the elementary course, while offering 
fresh work and an appreciable degree of progress, are chiefly devoted 
to a thorough review and mastery of the work of the preceding two 
years, especially in the fundamentals of the major subjects forming 
the foundation of all education. 

To these three classes pupils may be promoted or assigned who for 
any reason have not mastered sufficiently well the preceding work, or 
who can not maintain continually the more rapid rate of progress 
required in the grades, and who need special individual instruction. 
From these classes they are promoted to the next higher grades — 
upper third, sixth, and ninth — somewhat in advance of pupils who 
may have skipped from the second, fifth, and eighth grades, thus 
enabling them to maintain their progress at a more nearly equal pace 
with their fellow pupils. 

Children, on the other hand, whose progress for the year or more 
preceding warrants it, may skip these special classes without serious 
loss of knowledge or training, and finish the course in less than the 
regular time of nine years. 

Under this plan individual pupils may receive double promotion at 
any time, large groups may skip half a year at three places in the 
course, and retarded pupils may be promoted more freely because of 



PEATUEES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 



S5 



the tkree ^'opportunity" classes, grades 3A, 6A, and 9A, that afford 
exceptional chances to remove deficiencies. 

Reports from all schools for the first half year since the introduction 
of this plan — ending February 2, 1912 — show the following results: 



Grade. 


Total mem- 
bership. 


Number of 
double pro- 
motions. 


Per cent of 
double pro- 
motions 


Number of 
detentions. 


Per cent of 
detentions. 


1 


781 
601 
630 
80S 
689 
68:3 
626 
478 
423 


26 

67 

31 

47 

107 

41 

21 

6 

4 


3.3 

11.0 
5.0 
5.7 

15.5 
6.0 
3.3 
1.3 
1.0 


110 
65 
65 
37 
54 
52 
26 
29 
16 


14.0 
10.8 
10.3 
4.5 
7.8 
7.6 
4.1 
6.0 
4.0 


2 


3 


4 .. 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 

Total.. 


5,719 


350 


6.1 


454 


7.9 



Plan of Grading and Promotion, 
primary grades. 



Same regular work in all subjects for all children. Class to be divided, so far as practicable, 
into groups accordiui:; to ability. Slower group to be kept small for individual help. Change 
pupils from one group to the other whenever necessary. Each pupil to be encouraged and 
assisted to advance as rapidly as possible. Pupils of exceptional ability may be promoted at 
any time to next higher section. Detain only very backward pupils. Promotions in groups of 
different standards. 



Work and grouping as in three preceding sections. Brighter pupils — say three-fifths of the 
class— to be promoted to grade 3 B. Rest of class to be promoted to grade 3 A. No pupils to be 
detained. 



Pupils to be carefully drilled in deficiencies and in the essentials of major subjects. Thorough 
review of previous work. Advance to include one-third of grade 3 B, if possible. Class to bo 
small for individual and special work. Promotions only at end of the grade. Detentions to be 
verv rare. 



Rapid review of work of grades 2 B and 3 A. Work and organization otherwise as in grades 
1 A to 2 A, indiusive. 



INTERMEDIATE GRADES. 



Arrangement of work, system of 
grading, grouping, and promotion 
of pupils similar to plan for 
primary grades. 



36 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

Plan op Grading and Promotion, 
grammar grades. 



7 


A 
B 
A 
B 
A 
B 


Arrangement of work, sys- 
tem of grading, grouping, and 
promotion of pupils similar to 
plan for primary grades. 

Division of pupils into four 
courses. 

Pupils may be promoted 
cordiag to rank and ability. 


I 

General 
course. 


II 

Commercial 
course. 


III 

Manual 
training 
course. 


IV 

Domestic 
science 
course. 


8 










(See 


explanation 


given 


below.) 


9 










from grade 9 B 


to 10 A orlO B 


in one or more 


subjects, ac- 



HIGH SCHOOL. 





A 


















10 


B 
A 














o 


8 


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Explanations. 

1. Pupils of exceptional ability may be promoted at any time to the next higher 
section from sections lA to IB, 2 A, 4A, 4B, 5A, 7 A, 7B, and 8A; but not from sections 
2B, 3B, 5B, 6B, 8B, and 9B; and rarely from 3A, 6A, and 9A. 

2. Pupils may, if necessary, be detained to repeat sections lA, IB, 2A, 4A, 4B, 5A, 
7A, 7B, and 8A; rarely in 3B, 6B, and 9B; only in the most exceptional cases in 3A, 
6A, and 9A; and not at all in 2B, 5B, and SB, 

3. Pupils may be advanced according to paragraph 1 much more freely, and de- 
tained according to paragraph 2 much less frequently than heretofore, because of the 
flexibility provided in grades 3, 6, and 9. Essential features, however, are: (a) Divi- 
sion of the class according to ability in grades 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8; (b) Promotion, 
within these grades in groups of different standards; (c) Rigid classification and 
divided promotion at the end of the second, fifth, and eighth grades. 

4. Beginning with grade 7, pupils are required to select their course with an end in 
view; first, general, leading to any higher education; second, commercial, leading to 
business or higher commercial education; third, manual training for the boys; fourth, 
domestic science for the girls. The work of the seventh grade is the same for all 
courses, but during the year special study, information, and guidance are to be fos- 
tered to confirm wise and remedy unwise choices. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 37 

5, Work in grades 8 and 9 is to be differentiated according to courses elected — certain 
subjects to be common to all courses, as music, geography, history, spelling, physiology, 
and reading, and others to be modified according to the end in view, as English, arith- 
metic, grammar, drawing, manual training, and domestic science. In the ninth grade 
the differentiation becomes greater by the introduction of electives, such as com- 
mercial arithmetic, algebra, advanced English, manual training, etc., not all of which 
maybe taken. In these electives the work required is to be equivalent to half a 
year's high-school work, and its satisfactory completion entitles a pupil to enter the 
high school with advanced standing in such electives. 



SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS. 

Birmingham, Ala. J. H. Phillips, superintendent of city schools, 
report, 1910-11. — In order to promote the efficiency of the schools 
of the city of Birmingham, Ala., the board of education by resolution 
has provided for the organization of school improvement associa- 
tions under the direction of the principal and superintendent, for 
such purposes as will promote the welfare of the school. The school 
improvement association is a semiofficial agency, organized under the 
authority of the board. The following extracts are from the con- 
stitution of the association: 

1. To cooperate with the teachers and school authorities of the city in securing 
neatness and cleanliness in the schools. 

2. To assist the principal and teachers of each school in improving the appearance 
of the school grounds and in decorating and beautifying the halls and classrooms with 
appropriate pictures and such other works of art as shall develop in the children a 
love for the beautiful in nature, in art, and in life. 

3. To assist the teachers and principals in obtaining needed material equipment for 
effective teaching. 

4. To cooperate in securing attendance at school, especially of those who are in poor 
and neglected homes. 

5. To assist in the extension of opportunities of culture for the benefit of the entire 
community and to use the school as a culture center. 

The good accomplished by this federated system for the improve- 
ment of the schools can not be easily estimated. The following are 
the most conspicuous activities carried on during the year [1911]: 
Supplying material needs of kindergartens, piano for school, providing 
lunches [free lunches for indigent pupils], sanitary drinking fountains, 
pictures and books for the library, beautifying school grounds, fur- 
nishing playgrounds and gymnastic apparatus, and providing free 
entertainments and extension lectures. 



SCHOOL GARDENS. 

Memphis, Tenn. L. E. Wolfe, superintendent of city schools. — A 
supervisor gives all his time to school gardening, which has been 
made a part of the regular school course. A part of the work of the 
children is to keep records of the expenses incurred and of the 
quantity of vegetables produced. 



38 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

About 30 garden sites, varying from half an acre to an acre, near 
the respective schools have been secured, fertilized, and plowed. 
Two thousand boys from the fifth to the eighth grades, inclusive, 
devote one and one-haK hours each week to gardening under the 
supervisor and principal, while the girls of the corresponding grades 
sew. Both white and colored children receive this instruction. 
Each boy this year will have a plat 10 by 20 feet, and he will be held 
responsible for results. The school board has purchased 1,000 hoes, 
500 weeders, and 40 wheelbarrows to be used by the boys in their 
work. The board also furnishes seeds. The boys are encouraged to 
have home gardens, and the interest of parents is stimulated by cir- 
cular letters. An attempt will be made to induce the seed companies 
to furnish seed for the boys for their home gardens at wholesale 
prices. 

The garden movement in Memphis is not only Hberally supported 
by the school board, but it has been indorsed by the business men's 
club, the city club, and the nineteenth century woman's club. It 
was through the efforts of the women's club that gardening was 
introduced into the schools several years ago. 

The following results have been secured: (1) Children have become 
interested in plant hfe; (2) waste places have been made useful and 
beautiful; (3) children have earned some spending money by whole- 
some and instructive outdoor work; (4) fresh vegetables have been 
furnished for the home; (5) homes have been made more beautiful 
and attractive. 

It is planned by the Memphis school board to procure 20 or more 
acres near a car Hne, where the larger boys who are not otherwise 
employed during the summer months may under intelligent super- 
vision make truck gardening profitable and educative. 

Los Angeles, Col. J. H. Francis, superintendent of city schools. — 
Over 60 school gardens are in operation. The largest ones are at 
Gardena Agricultural High School, where nearly 10 acres are under 
cultivation in grain, vegetables, flowers, and fruits. The gardens 
of other schools range in size from a small bed or two to lots 50 by 
200 feet. The latter have usually been loaned by citizens, who are 
glad to have children clear them and improve them by sightly flowers 
and vegetable plats. There is a supervisor of gardening with five 
assistants. 

In Cleveland, Ohio; Minneapolis, Minn.; Philadelphia, Pa; and 
Washington, D. C, noteworthy efforts are making along similar fines. 

BrocHon, Mass. G. L. Farley, superintendent of city schools. — 
School garden work was started in Brockton last year, and the interest 
developed at that time was so great that the activity in garden work 
will be much increased during the coming year. The agricultural 



FEATUEES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 39 

club of the high school wall plant and cultivate either one-half acre 
of corn or a quarter acre of potatoes or tomatoes. The grade pupils 
will make many home gardens during the summer. 

South Omaha, Nehr. N. M. Graham, superintendent of city schools. — 
Principals and teachers are to enroll as gardeners all pupils under 16 
years of age who are able to lay out, prepare, plant, cultivate, and 
care for a home garden plat on the child's home premises, but it may 
be elsewhere in case the pupil has no yard of his own. The size of 
the plat is to contain not less than 100 square feet nor more than 150 
square feet. The city is to be divided into 11 garden districts, cor- 
responding to the 11 school districts of the ward schools. Three 
cash prizes are to be offered in each district. For the best garden of 
each district $3 is to be awarded; for the second best, $2; for the 
third best, $1. For the best garden in the city, a sweepstakes cash 
prize of $5 is to be awarded; for the second best a prize of $3; for 
the third best a prize of $2, 

Waltham, Mass. W. D. Parlcinson, superintendent of city schools. — 
Waltham, Mass., employs a teacher of gardening, who works inde- 
pendently of school terms and school sessions, taking her long vacation 
in winter, and making it her prime aim to promote home gardening 
rather than school gardening. Such school gardens as she carries 
on are not connected with particular schools, but are on land loaned 
for the purpose, and tilled by groups of volunteers. 

The teacher goes into the several schools and gives instruction 
with regard to planting the home gardens, as occasion arises and 
opportunity is given. She distributes seeds, enlists her gardeners, 
and obtains reports of their progress through the schools, and has 
the cooperation of the grade teachers; but her own activities are 
not scheduled like those of other special teachers, or limited to school 
hours or school days. She manages to inspect a very large number of 
home gardens and with the aid of volunteer inspectors to keep 
account of the success or failure of each young gardener. She is 
thus brought into contact with the parents, and incidentally has 
opportunity to promote the improvement of home grounds. 



SPECIAL SCHOOLS AND CLASSES. 

Newton, Mass. F. E. Spaulding, superintendent of city schools, 
special report, 1912. — When it was found some years ago that in the 
Newton schools there were in the eighth year of the grammar grades 
a large number of girls over 15 years of age for whom there was Uttle 
hope of promotion to the high school by the ordinary methods of 
school grading, a special class for these girls was organized in the 
Newton Technical High School. 



40 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

In planning the special class for the girls, many avenues of approach 
to their mentality, were open for them. They were given 10 periods 
of academic work — commercial geography, hygiene, household 
accounts, and English; 10 of household economics; 4 of design; and 

1 of physical culture. 

A brief study of some of the more common vocations for girls was 
made, and talks were given the class by the head nurse of the city 
hospital, a woman physician of Newton, the director of the Boston 
School of Salesmanship, a member of the school board, the superin- 
tendent of schools, and other persons competent to speak upon special 
subjects. Some of the topics were: ^'Qualities necessary to success in 
any vocation;" ^'What should determine one's choice of a voca- 
tion?" '' Healthful and unhealthful vocations;" ''The life of a sales- 
girl;" ''Books that every girl should know." 

The girls wrote reports of each one of these talks upon vocations, 
both as an exercise in English and also for the purpose of impressing 
upon their minds the facts given regardiag the vocations. 

As far as possible the home conditions of the pupils were studied, 
and calls were made at a large number of homes during the year. 

During the year each pupil memorized and recited 10 choice poems. 
About 50 carefully selected books from the public library were kept 
in the schoolroom, and 50 small volumes of English classics were 
bought by the class as a nucleus of a permanent schoolroom library. 
Every Friday a report was made upon the reading that the pupil 
had done during the week. 

In arithmetic all work was eliminated excepting practical prob- 
lems in housekeeping, sewing, millinery, and expense accounts. In 
commercial geography a talk illustrated by the reflectroscope summed 
up the lessons of each. 

In cooking, each girl learned to make over 70 different articles of 
food; in sewing, a complete set of underclothes, a cooking uniform, 
and a dress were made. In design, the girls were taught harmony 
of line and color. Hats, articles for household use, and a few dresses 
were designed. 

Of the 50 girls in the class at the beginning of the school year 
(September, 1910), 45 remained until the end of the year. Of the 
45, 27 entered the regular course of the Technical High School in 
September, 1911 — 16 the clerical, 1 the fine arts, and 10 the extra- 
technical courses — 2 the Newton Classical High School, 1 a boarding 
school, and 2 returned to the special transfer class for a second year's 
work; 4 went to work for a manufacturing company, 2 in factories, 

2 became clerks in stores, 1 became a housemaid, 2 remained at 
home, and 2 moved from the city. 

A careful study was made of the standing of all the girls who entered 
the regular high-school courses in September, 1911, It has been 



FEATUKES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 41 

found from the rating sheets that the number of these failing to do 
satisfactory work has been small. 

[For a complete account of this experiment the reader is referred 
to a pamphlet entitled ''A Novel Experiment," published by the 
Newton Vocational Prmt Shop, Newton ville, Mass.] 

Madison, Wis. R. B. Dudgeon, superintendent of dty schools. — 
An important measure is the establishment of three classes of instruc- 
tion outside and apart from the regular work of the public-school 
system. This w^ork is done in accordance with chapter 616, Laws 
of 1911, State of Wisconsin. Under the provisions of this act last 
fall the board of education appointed four members who, together 
with the city superintendent as ex officio member, constitute a local 
board of industrial education. Under this act the board has organ- 
ized and is now carrying on three classes of schools, viz, school for 
permit children between the ages of 14 and 16, a day continuation 
school for children between the ages of 14 and 16 unemployed, and 
an evening continuation school for adults. The enrollment in these 
classes is as follows: Continuation school. High School Building, 345; 
continuation school, Longfellow Building, 51; day school, pernut 
children, 44; continuation day school, 5. 

For the operation of these classes nine special teachers are em- 
ployed. The money for the maintenance of these classes was obtained 
from the city council and was in addition to the sum called for by 
the budget for the public schools. 

The work in these classes includes instruction in English, arithmetic, 
bookkeeping, stenography, typewriting, mechanical drawing, cook- 
ing, and sewing. This work is still in an experimental stage, but 
promises well. The attendance has been all that could be expected, 
all in attendance seem interested, and the general attitude toward 
the school in the city is good. 

Grand Rapids, Mich. W. A. Greeson, superintendent of city 
schools. — An important feature of the work in the public schools in 
Grand Rapids has been the effort to care for the deaf, mentally 
defective, and backward pupils. There is in successful operation an 
oral school for the deaf and hard of hearing, with 28 pupils, and 4 
teachers, all of whom have had special training for this work. 

For the mentally defective there is a separate school of four rooms, 
with 12 pupils in each room. This building is well equipped with 
special apparatus adapted to the needs of mentally defective chil- 
dren. They are taught to prepare food brought from their homes, 
which they serve and eat at the midday meal. They are taught to 
wash and iron and to do general housework. The girls are taught 
practical sewing; the boys are taught carpentry. An effort is made 
to find something that each child can do in order to prepare himself 



42 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

to earn a living after he leaves school, if that is possible. In addi- 
tion to these four rooms there are three classes for mentally defective 
children in other buildings with not more than 12 in a class. To 
each of these classes a specially trained teacher gives her entire time, 
and the work is carried on along the lines indicated above. 

When pupils are two years or more behind the grade in which 
they ought to be according to their age, they are put in special classes 
under competent teachers, who receive an additional salary for this 
work. The teachers of these retarded pupils are directed to pay 
little attention to the regular course of study and to adapt the in- 
struction to the individual needs of the child. There are 20 rooms 
of this character now in Grand Rapids, and accordii^g to the last 
report about one-half of the retarded pupils in the city are cared for 
in this way. 

Passaic, N. J. V. G. Wheeler, superintendent of city schools. — 
What to do with or for the 14-year-old boy who has lost int^est in 
regular school work and who has not completed the grades is a prob- 
lem that the schools of Passaic are attempting to solve by organizing 
special industrial classes for these boys. The plan is as follows : 

One half of each day is devoted to shopwork and the other half to 
academic work, the two being correlated whenever possible. The 
shopwork will, as soon as a little skill is acquired, be put on a prac- 
tical commercial basis. The school work will be selected, emphasis 
being placed upon the most vital parts of the different subjects. 

Pupils in grades 7 and 8 may elect to enter these classes or 
continue in regular grade work. Pupils in the sixth grade who 
axe 14 years old may, at the discretion of the teacher and superin- 
tendent, be allowed to elect the industrial work. All these pupils 
must fill out an application and have it signed by the parent or 
guardian. In addition to the above, certain pupils from various 
grades who, for certain reasons, have become troublesome and are 
getting little or nothing from the regular grade work may be arbi- 
trarily transferred to the industrial classes. It is hoped that this 
arrangement will do away with the special incorrigible class. 

When schools opened in September, 1912, no pupils were in sight 
for the industrial classes, but when the opportunity was offered more 
applied than could be accommodated, and several were put on a 
waiting list. 

This is in no sense a trade school, but a two-year course of prac- 
tical industrial work will be offered which will serve as a broad 
foundation for any manual vocation. It is so planned that those 
who complete the course may enter the vocational course in the 
high school and, under the cooperative plan which is in operation at 
Passaic, perfect themselves in a chosen trade. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 43 

Salem, Or eg. P. J. Kuntz, superintendent of city schools. — The 
principals of the graded schools are free to give all or part of their 
time to overage and backward pupils. In one of the schools the 
principal gives full time to this work. In four others only part time 
is given, while in three other grade schools no such work has as yet 
been undertaken. In the high school one teacher devotes half his 
time in assisting the pupils in the study hall. This plan is meeting 
with general approval, as it is helping to solve the problem of retard- 
ation. 

New Bedford, Mass. A. P. Keith, superintendent of city schools. — 
Owing to the large foreign population and the fact that the State law 
of Massachusetts does not permit illiterates between 14 and 16 years 
of age to work, the school board of New Bedford has established 
special classes to teach the boys and girls reading, writing, and arith- 
metic. As much of history, civics, and geography as possible is 
worked in with the reading. 

It has been found that by placing these pupils in rooms by them- 
selves under teachers specially appointed because of their fitness for 
this work excellent results may be obtained. It is believed that 
this is one of the best things that has been done in a department in 
recent years, although there are special classes for backward pupils 
and also special disciplinary classes. 

Eleven rooms are now in use for these classes. The work will be 
extended next September, when more rooms will be available. 

East Chicago, Ind. E. N. Canine, superintendent of city schools. — 
It was found that some children, especially in grades 5, 6, and 7, 
seemingly could not do the regular work and were '^ repeating" for 
the second and in some cases for the third time. These pupils have 
been placed in separate classes. One-fourth to one-third of the time 
is spent in the manual- training and domestic-science departments, 
where the work is correlated very closely with bookwork and made 
as practical as possible. One-fourth to one-third of the time is spent 
with the special teacher who teaches the work of each grade to these 
children. The absolutely essential and most practical phases of 
English, arithmetic, geography, and civics are presented. The 
remainder of the time is spent in regular classes. Last year some of 
the boys passed, under conditions, not only the grade in which they 
failed, but the next grade as well. 

Additional teachers have been employed, and this work has been 
extended and more carefully organized. It is planned for these 
classes to run parallel with the regular classes, so that children may 
pass from one to the other without losing grades. If a boy ''finds 
himself," he may go back to a regular class. The work for these 
classes consists of English, spelling, practical arithmetic, geography 



44 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

as related to the industries of the community and to all parts of the 
world, and carefully prepared lessons in civics and hygiene. Ele- 
mentary science, which relates to the industries and practical life, 
is also made a very large part of the work. The children visit the 
laboratories where older children are at work and make apparatus 
for simple, practical experiments. 

The work is open not only to boys and girls under 14 who are still 
in school, but also to those over 14 who have quit school and who are 
without employment. Such pupils do not have to go into the lower 
classes to which they belonged when they left school, but they have 
the work they can do in the special ungraded classes. 

The work in the high school is planned in the same lines. Pupils 
who have had the special work in the grades may enter and complete 
the high school without handicap. They could not and would not 
pursue the usual college preparatory course, but their studies are 
such as would fit them for the industries into which they may go. 
The studies include elementary and practical mathematics, business 
English, spelling, penmanship, general science, bookkeeping, type- 
writing, shopwork, cooking, sewing, millinery, and general household 
arts. 

Superior, Wis. W. E. Haddock, superintendent of city schools. — A 
'^ special aid room" has been established in one of the large schools of 
the city of Superior. The purpose of this room is to give special help 
to those children who are able to progress more rapidly than the rest 
and thereby earn an extra promotion, and to aid those children to 
work up to grade who through sickness or some other cause have 
fallen behind. Children are never '' assigned" to this room, but 
'^ apply" for admission after they have been made to see the advan- 
tage it would give them. There is always a large waiting list. 
Some children go to the room for special help in arithmetic, others in 
language, and others in English, etc. Occasionally a child needs help 
in two or three subjects. As soon as he is made sufficiently proficient 
in those subjects, he is returned to his regular class, which is consid- 
ered a mark of distinction. From 40 to 50 pupils are either extra 
promoted or regularly promoted by the aid of the special room. This 
is one of the best things we have done recently. 

Dayton, Ohio. E. J, Brown, superintendent of city schools. — In 
Dayton there is a school numbering 16 boys, known as the '^ Vocational 
school." It is for boys over 14 years of age who do not expect to go 
to high school. They have short morning lessons in general history 
and current events, two lessons in shop and business arithmetic, two 
lessons a week in business and shop English. The remaining time is 
spent in wood, forge, and machine shops. During the second year 
each boy is permitted to specialize in the work he prefers. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 45 

Brockton, 3fass. G. L. Farley, superintendent of city schools . — In 
the high school of Brockton there is a class known as a ''transfer 
class," made up of boys and girls from the seventh, eighth, and 
ninth grades who are over age and for various reasons find themselves 
in those lower grades. These boys and girls are transferred into the 
high-school building and placed in special classes. Upon the com- 
pletion of a specially prepared course of study they will be admitted 
to the high school. 

HaclcensacJc, N. J. W. E. StarTc, superintendent of city scJiools. — 
Four special classes have been organized during the past year for 
the benefit of pupils who can not make progress in regular grades. 
Three of these classes are for mentally deficient pupils and one is 
for recently arrived foreigners who need special training in English. 
The three classes for mental defectives are of two grades: One for 
low-grade pupils, which is centrally located in a private house at 
some distance from any school, and two are for higher-grade pupils, 
located in public-school buildings in different parts of the town. 
Each of these higher-grade classes serves two school districts. The 
special classes for mental defectives are limited to 15 members each. 

Pupils were originally selected in the following manner: Princi- 
pals and teachers first made a tentative selection from all the schools 
of about 125 pupils. These were all examined by an expert examiner 
belonging to the staff of a well-known institution for training mental 
defectives. This examiner used the Binet-Simon tests, making card 
records, which were supplemented by reports of teachers, princi- 
pals, medical examiners, etc. As soon as the examinations were 
completed a conference was held, which was attended by the special 
examiner, principals, medical examiners, and the superintendent. 
Cases were taken up in turn and lists were made. Pupils who seemed 
most in need of the opportunities to be offered by the special classes 
before the opening of school in the fall were selected. Teachers of 
the special classes visited the parents of the prospective pupils, 
explaining the opportunities, and with little exception secured the 
approval of the parents to the transfer of their children to the special 
classes. There has been throughout the year a growing confidence 
in the value of the special classes on the part of parents and teachers. 
At a recent exhibit of school work the handwork done by the special 
classes was the feature which attracted the most attention. 

Hazleton, Pa. D. A. Barman, superintendent of city schools. — 
Two years ago by unanimous vote the board established a fresh- 
air school for the benefit of anemics and children threatened by or 
suffering from tuberculosis. The antituberculosis committee of 
the United Charities provided Eskimo suits and hot porridge, 
cocoa, or some similar food for the lunch hour. They also provided 



46 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

cots with blankets. The board provided a teacher and assistant, a 
janitor, and three rooms — one for a schoolroom, one for a lunch room, 
and one for a sleeping apartment. The board also provided for the 
transportation of children who live at too great a distance from the 
school or who were too frail to walk, even though the distance was 
not great. 

The school opened with 21 pupils, who were admitted upon the 
recommendation of a board of physicians. Since that time the 
school has numbered as high as 42. Its present number is 23. Of 
those who have attended about 80 children returned to their regular 
schoolrooms because of improved condition of health. Two or 
three have been sent to institutions for the care of consumptives. 
None, so far as I know, has died. The improvement in the health 
of the children has been remarkable. The schoolroom and the 
rest room have the windows open all the time. The windows of the 
lunch room are closed during the lunch hour. 

The cost to the school district has been about $4 per month per 
pupil. The State dispensary furnishes milk, delivered at the build- 
ing, for children whose parents are too poor to provide it. All 
children bring a lunch, and those who can do so have milkmen 
deliver their milk at the school building. 

The program consists of regular school work, beginning at 9 a. m., 
hot milk at the middle of the forenoon, lunch at noon, with hot por- 
ridge, cocoa, or some other nourishing food, furnished by the anti- 
tuberculosis committee, an hour and a half sleep upon the cots, and 
two hours' school instruction. 

A result fully as desirable as the improvement to the children 
of the fresh-air school is that of the effect that the instruction of the 
fresh-air school has had upon all of the city schools, namely, a far 
greater interest in the matter of fresh air and lower temperature in 
the ordinary schoolrooms. Teachers and pupils seek to keep the 
air of the room purer and the temperature lower. 

Los Angeles, Cat. M. C. Bettinger (forwarded hy John H. Francis^ 
superintendent of city schools) . — The special classes in the Los Angles 
city public school system are founded on the dual proposition — 

First, that there is something the matter with some of the children 
which renders them misfits. 

Second, that there is something the matter with the grade school 
system which makes it inadequate in its power to reach those 
children. 

The series of special rooms is planned to act as a corrective for 
both phases of this proposition. The aim is merely to be sure that 
the Los Angeles city school district takes care of all her children in 
a way that reaches the needs of each one. The grade system takes 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 47 

care of part very well; of another part fairly well; a third part it 
fails to reach. These special rooms are other classes to reach these 
other children, by teaching them and managing them in other ways. 
The underlying thought of it all is that the chief business of an 
educational system is to prevent children from failing. Every 
child has a right to go steadily forward in his educational develop- 
ment, just as he goes forward in stature and avoirdupois. A school 
system which does not make this possible is not doing what it should 
do for humanity. 

Kinds of Special Classes. — First. Ungraded rooms; maximum en- 
rollment, 20 to 24; open to normal or near-normal pupils who for 
any cause are working at a serious disadvantage in the grades; also 
for ^'deportment cases" growing out of lack of success with studies. 
Some rooms are primary, some advanced. Each room serves as a 
center for a group of buildings. 

Second. Special ungraded rooms, known as Special Schools, 
open to truants and incorrigibles, \vith maximum as enrollment 
of 15. 

Third. Permanent ungraded rooms, open to pupils who are ex- 
tremely dull or who have about them a touch of queerness. The 
enrollment may run as high as 30. This room is not open for im- 
beciles. Los Angeles has not yet any pubHc school accommodations 
for imbeciles. 

Fourth. Parental school, where children without adequate parental 
control, usually those who have made a start in juvenile vice and 
crime, are entered, at present by way of the juvenile court. The 
number of pupils varies with conditions. 

Fifth. Deaf classes, both primary and advanced. 

Administration and methods of teaching. — Ungraded rooms: At 
least one-fourth of the pupils in any city at any time should have 
more individual treatment than they can get in the ordinary grade 
school room. Los Angeles has not been able to provide for so large 
a number as this, and for that reason has selected the following 
cases as preferred types of pupils for assignment to ungraded rooms, 
some of them because the child is failing, some of them because the 
system is failing: Any over-age or over-size pupil; a frail child who 
can not keep up the grade pace; an exceptionally bright child who 
is forming trifling habits ; any child whose mind is nearly a blank on 
one or two subjects, but possibly compensatingly strong on other 
subjects; the one who is characterized by his mother as ''peculiar," 
and is in fact temperamentally unfitted for the conventional grade 
method of management; any child whose mind is obsessed by music, 
art, airships, or the "Old Nick." Near promotion time these rooms 
p,re used also for assisting strugghng pupils to make their promotion. 



48 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

These rooms are also used for cases of misconduct. They are 
used for the correction of cases of wrong doing in classroom, growing 
out of lack of success with the studies. This embraces much more 
than one-half the cases of trouble with conduct. All of the cases 
enumerated above as working at a serious disadvantage in a grade 
are hable to run into disorderly conduct if continued in a grade. 
In addition to these, there are many ordinary pupils who get into 
disorder because of the bungling of inexperienced or newly installed 
teachers. These are to be treated by having conditions changed, 
not by being disciplined. We change the conditions by sending 
them temporarily to an ungraded room. 

The maximum enrollment in these ungraded rooms is 20, if the 
aggregation of pupils is '^ difficult;" it may run to 24, if not difficult. 

Assignments to these rooms are made by the assistant superin- 
tendent in charge, on recommendation of principal and grade teacher, 
and also on request or with consent of parents. The requests by 
parents are at all times far in excess of the accommodations. 

The regular course of study is used, but only as a basis. No 
attempt is made to cover the course of study in all its minutiae; 
teachers are instructed to modify the course to meet the needs of 
any individual. Extra manual work is given to those who seem to 
need more of motor trauiing. All subject matter of the course, 
except bare essentials, is omitted for over-age and over-size pupils. 
Teachers are instructed to send pupils 16 years of age or over to 
high school in the shortest possible time. Usually this is a matter 
of a few weeks. 

Dismissals from the rooms are made on the judgment of the un- 
graded room teacher and the principal. The assistant superintendent 
in charge assists in selecting the grade teacher to whom any pupil 
will go when dismissed from the ungraded room. This is a very 
important item. The policy is to keep any pupil until there is a good 
degree of certainty that he will be able to do good work in the grade. 
Those who are sent to high school by the short-cut route iadicated 
above do as well as the regulars in high school, and often better. 

The type of teacher that is selected for the ungraded room is 
one who combines flexibility with personal forcefulness. She must be 
flexible enough to meet all sorts of pupils, ui all sorts of ways; she 
must be able to meet each one on his own ground, and if need be, in 
cases of misconduct, to go a little way with him on his own course 
b/efore attempting to turn him about to a better course. Besides this 
flexibihty, she must possess forcefulness enough to move things 
when it is necessary to do so. The maximum payment of these 
teachers is $10 per month more than the maximum of the grade 
teachers. 



FEATURES IK CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 49 

In the methods of management and teaching, the aun is not to 
see how httle this room can diverge from the grade room, but rather 
how near we can come to natiirahiess. A greater freedom is per- 
mitted — physical freedom and mental freedom. The attempt is 
made to permit pupils to think and move and mingle very much as 
they do in the home. They are permitted to study aloud, to gather 
in groups about a table, and study, to pass to the blackboard for 
their study, and so forth. They are taught in groups as far as possible, 
but individually if necessary. 

Special ungraded rooms. — These rooms for incorrigibles and truants 
are not considered in any sense as places of commitment for school 
offenders. They are considered simply as another kind of school 
in which these boys can get a different kind of school life. It is 
beheved that these boys have lapsed for the time being to the infantile 
or the animal. They have let themselves go, and let go of themselves, 
until they have become creatures of impulse, and they must be 
rebuilt. These rooms are to reconstruct them, and the management 
and teaching is ordered to that end. The truant officer does not 
take these boys to the special school. They are assigned by ordinary- 
transfer. The teachers are in all cases selected young men, not 
scholastic young men, but young men who have the power to get into 
boy world, and to make this school a lifelike place. The theory on 
which the management is based is that, if a school is hke life, the 
life of the big world which the boy seeks when he plays truant, he 
will be willing to stay in school just as he is willing to stay in life, 
and the theory works. These boys prefer to stay in school. They 
prefer to stay in this kind of a school to anything else that can be 
offered them. The great benefit to the boys from this treatment 
comes through the fact that while they are in this lapsed condition 
they do not have to conform to prescribed environment. In large 
measure they make their own. 

The methods in these rooms include frequent hikes over the hills 
and adjournment to the baseball diamond, even right in the midst of 
the school session. These rooms are distributed over the city so that 
there may not be any large number of these boys gathered together in 
one center, and so that they may be given this near-to-nature life and 
management. 

The course of study has been modified more than in the imgraded 
rooms. The injunction to the teacher is to restore the boy to a normal 
status. Much more manual work is used in the day's exercises than 
in the ordinary schoolroom. 

Assignments of pupils to these rooms are made on the request of 
the school principal, indorsed by the special supervisor. Dismissals 
are made on the judgment of the teacher of the special ungraded 



50 FEATURES IK CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

room, and indorsement of the special supervisor. An assistant 
superintendent of schools has a general supervision of the rooms. 

The maximum pay of the teachers is $25 a month more than the 
maximum of the regular grade teacher. This difference in pay 
has never been the cause of any trouble to the department. 

Permanent ungraded room. — The candidates for the permanent 
ungraded rooms have nearly all spent some time just previously in an 
ordinary ungraded room. Their teachers and parents have come to 
recognize that their dullness or queerness renders them imfit for 
regular grade conditions. Therefore, after a trial in the ordinary 
ungraded room, they are transferred to the permanent room. No 
attempt is made to do anything more than merely to give the children 
such elementary subjects as each one can take, and at such a pace as 
they can take them. The enrollment may run as high as 30 to a 
teacher. On leaving this room, the pupils find some occupation 
involving only simple tasks, and are absorbed into society. 

The compensation for the teachers is the same as in the ordinary 
ungraded room. 

Parental school. — The parental school of Los Angeles so far has 
been run in conjunction with the juvenile court. The school depart- 
ment furnishes the teacher and course of study; the court furnishes the 
pupils. It is the intention of the city to open a school of this kind, 
independent of the court, in the near future. This will come near to 
fitting into our system of special classes. At the present time the 
cooperative work with the juvenile court has worked very well. 

The school, at present known as Juvenile Hall, occupies commo- 
dious up-to-date buildings on 11 acres of ground. The course of 
study emphasizes agricultural, commercial, domestic, and manual 
branches. The teachers are paid on the schedule of the special 
ungraded rooms. 

Deaf classes. — The deaf classes, both primary and advanced, 
use lip methods only. The maximum enrollment is 7 pupils per 
teacher. 

Results. — First. In the special rooms the pupils have their needs 
met. They have a right to this, and they do not get it in a grade. 

Second. AU pupils in these ungraded rooms, both the ordinary and 
the special, acquire better habits and more power of concentration of 
mind. They excel in these respects the pupils of the grade classes. 
Those who go to high school from these rooms make a smaller per cent 
of failures than those who go from the regular grades. 

Third. By removing the misfits the enrollment in the graded room 
can be increased. In that way no financial loss foUows from maintain- 
ing a class for only 15 or 20 pupils to the teacher. 

Fourth. In practically aU cases of pupils transferred for disorderly 
conduct in the grade the trouble ends as soon as the transfer is r ade. 



PEATUBES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 51 

This shows that the trouble was due to conditions, and the way to 
treat the case is to change conditions. 

Fifth. These rooms improve the general relationships of pupils 
and teachers throughout the system. The following tabulation shows 
the bearing on suspensions and corporal punishments of these rooms 
for the first 5 years after they were established. 

Suspensions and corporal punishments. 



Years. 


Suspen- 
sions. 


Corporal 

pun- 
ishments. 


Enroll- 
ment. 


1902-3 


218 
199 
132 
116 

72 


494 
483 
441 
377 
254 


27, 419 


1903-4 


30,909 


1904-5 


34, 326 


1905-6 


37,877 


1906-7 


42,998 







In a city school system where the record of suspensions and corporal 
punishments has been coming down with such a steady pace, while the 
record of enrollment is going up with such leaps and bounds, it would 
seem that there must be some agency or agencies at work to account 
for the same. First and most important of these is the ungraded 
rooms. 

A continuation of this tabulation would have shown continued 
diminution in the number of cases of discipUne. It was discontinued 
because the case seemed to have been fuUy estabhshed. 

Sixth. The personnel of the boys who are sent to the special un- 
graded rooms has steadily improved since these rooms were estab- 
lished ; that is, the boys who are sent to these rooms now are fully 
50 per cent better in character qualities than were those who were 
sent there six yeai-s ago, when the rooms were first opened. The city 
is now practically cleared of the typical school hobo. This shows 
that the influence of these rooms is working its way upstream and 
checking the drifting of the city school children into idleness, truancy, 
and criminahty. 

Seventh. The incorrigibles and truants, after they have been trans- 
ferred from the special ungraded rooms to a grade class or after they 
leave school to go to work, are hardly ever heard from again because 
of trouble. They seem to be absorbed into good citizenship. 

Eighth. In general aU the children of all kinds of schools in the 
city are made happier, and especially the people of the city are made 
happier. 

The intermediate schools, which are being established in Los Angele.-^ 
for seventh and eighth grade pupils, together with ninth and tenth 
year high-school students, are ministering to the needs of some pupils 
whom the ungi-aded rooms had to take under the regular grade sys- 
tem of organization. They are a part of the one great plan, of which 
the ungraded rooms are also a part, for so diversifying school work 
that varying needs of communities and individuals may be met. 



52 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

Golumhia, S. C. Ernest S. DreJier, superintendent of dty schools. — 
At Columbia, S. C, during the summer of 1912 the school board 
opened a summer school for backward and irregular pupils. This 
school was in session three hours a day from July 15 to September 6. 
The number of pupils enrolled was 108, and the number of teachers 
employed was 5. Only pupils who failed, who were promoted on 
trial, or who withdrew during the session were admitted. Those who 
failed paid tuition at one-half the regular rates; the others were 
charged the full amount. 

At the close of the session examinations were held, and 67 pupils 
were promoted. As the enrollment was 89, the percentage promoted 
was 75.2. The record for the high school deserves special mention. 
In June 24 pupils failed in this school; of this number 16 attended 
the smnmer school and 13 were promoted. 

The cost of maintaining the school is shown in the following state- 
ment: Teachers' salaries, $502.50; janitor's services and incidentals, 
$36.28; total, $538.78. Deduct amount received from tuition fees, 
$208; net cost, $330.78. 

SEGREGATION OF THE SEXES. 

Marinette, Wis. G. E. Landgraf, superintendent of city schools. — 
Last fall a plan was begun for the segregation of sexes in the physics 
and chemistry classes, modifying the courses to suit the particular 
needs of the classes, and in physics using different texts for the sexes. 
The course in physics given to the girls' classes is largely informa- 
tional and cultural and less technical. On the other hand, the boys' 
courses are more technical and mathematical and look toward fitting 
the boys to take scientific and engineering courses in the colleges 
and universities, and in fitting them to apply their knowledge of 
technical physics in the arts and industries. In chemistry the same 
principle governs the differentiation of the work. The chemistry of 
the girls' classes is built up largely around the chemistry of the home, 
of cooking, food values, and adulterations and their detection, while 
that of the boys' classes is hke that of physics, more technical and 
'^ scientific," calculated to be of most service to them in higher insti- 
tutions and in the arts and crafts. 

Experience in the limited tentative trial of the plan seems to 
demonstrate its value to all concerned and has resulted in greater 
enthusiasm and better work in each section. It is thought also that 
its success points the way to profitable segregation and differentia- 
tion of secondary school work in other subjects, as biology, EngHsh, 
and mathematics. 

Riverside, Col. A. N. Wheeloclc, superintendent of city schools. — In 
1911 complete segregation of boys and girls la secondary schools was 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 63 

adopted. A group of buildings for the boys' school was begun, and 
in September, 1911, the schools were organized as distinct schools, 
each with its principal and corps of teachers. 

South Bend, Ind. L. J. Montgomery, superintendent of city schools. — 
In January, 1913, beginning with the new semester of the school year, 
we segregated into boys' classes and girls' classes all pupils of the 
eighth grade. Reports from teachers are constantly becoming more 
enthusiastic over this division of the work. Both boys and girls 
seem to enter with more enthusiasm into their class work and many 
objectionable features which have arisen in mixed classes have dis- 
appeared. Discipline is easier and attention is more concentrated 
upon the work. A somewhat different kiad of work is offered, 
especially in arithmetic. 

Everett, Wash. C. R. Frazier, superintendent of city schools. — In 
September, 1912, the boys and girls were separated for class work in 
the greater part of the high-school work. Beginning with February, 
1913, the eighth^grade pupils (all of whom are now gathered at the 
Central building) were also segregated into boys' classes and girls' 
classes fox aU of their work. This step, both with reference to the 
high school and the eighth grade, has been taken in the belief that 
there is enough difference in the way the minds of boys and girls 
attack a subject to classify them separately. Teachers find them- 
selves presenting subject matter in a different way to a class of boys 
than to a class of girls. So far the testimony of the teachers has been 
favorable to the segregation in this respect. It is thought to be much 
better to have the boys and girls separated in the grammar and high- 
school grades for the reason that this is just the stage when boys and 
girls are apt to become too conscious of the attractions of the opposite 
sex. This plan also facilitates the classification of pupils for their 
industrial work. 



SCHOOL AS EMPLOYMENT BUREAU. 

Selma, Ala. A. P. Harman, superintendent of city schools. — In a 
very simple manner we have made the superintendent's office an 
employment bureau for graduates and former pupils of the schools. 
Also we supply business men with boys who work part time after- 
noons and Saturdays. In order to place this plan in operation I sent 
a circular letter to business and professional men, placing the schools 
at their service and calling attention to our ability to report accu- 
rately as to the character of our pupils. It is interesting to note that 
we have had more calls for boys and young men than we could supply; 
that no adverse report has been made upon any pupil whom we have 
recommended for a position; that the movement has been indorsed 
in the news colunms and in the editorial columns of the local papers. 



54 FEATTJBES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

SIMPLIFICATION OF THE COURSE OF STUDY. 

East CTiicdgo, Ind. E. N. Canine, superintendent of city schools.— 
In East Chicago, Ind., the number of studies has been reduced accord- 
ing to the following plan : 

In the four lower grades there is one long period each day given to 
language work, the material for which is found in literature, history, 
and nature study. These subjects do not have separate places on the 
daily program. 

In grades 5 and 6 reading, arithmetic, and geography are the sub- 
jects around which the other work is centered. The fifth-year his- 
tory, which consists of American history stories, is presented as a 
part of the geography of the region and is used as supplementary 
and home reading. European history stories are used in the same 
way in the sixth grade. The 7B pupils study and recite reading, 
arithmetic, and geography, while 7A pupils substitute grammar and 
history for reading and geography. The 8B pupils carry reading, 
arithmetic, and history, and change to grammar,- arithmetic, and 
physiology in 8A. There are thus but three lessons to prepare and 
recite, to which six 30-minute periods are devoted daily, and five 
30-minute periods each day are devoted to those subjects requiring 
no special preparation. 

Providence, R. 1. R. J. Condon, superintendent of schools. — During 
the past two years special attention has been given to a reform in 
the elementary course of study, in respect to both matter and 
methods of teaching. In the subject of arithmetic all difficult and 
comparatively useless matter has been eliminated. From one- third 
to one-half the time aUotted to arithmetic is devoted to mental work. 
In consequence of these efforts the children have acquired surprising 
ability to think out results without the use of pencils. 

Grammar has been much simplified by the omission of abstruse 
difficulties. History consists principaUy of narrative and biography. 
Hygiene takes the place of the old course in physiology and relates to 
practical affairs that are familiar to children. 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 

Winston-Salem, N. C. Le Roy Hodges, secretary of board of trade. — 
Training boys for the obligations and responsibilities of citizenship 
has been undertaken in Winston-Salem, N. C, along broad and 
unique lines. After nearly a year's successful operation the Winston- 
Salem plan is worthy of careful consideration, and possibly of imita- 
tion. The principal characteristics of this plan are: First, coopera- 
tion between the public schools and the local board of trade ; second, 



I 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 55 

the establishment of a department of government and economics in 
the city high school, and, third, the formation of a boys' department, 
or a ^'juvenile club," as it is called, of the board of trade. 

The work in the high school. — At the beginning of the 1912-13 
school year, Supt. R. H. Latham, of the city schools, provided as a 
part of the high-school curriculum a course in government and 
economics open to the senior students, and placed the new depart- 
ment under the direction of the secretary of the board of trade, who, 
with the approval of the board, had volunteered his services. Under 
this department the students are taught the elements of government, 
special attention being given to analysis and comparison of the city, 
county, State, and Federal Governments. During the term ending 
with the Christmas holidays, mock elections were held, and the class 
organized as city council, State general assembly, and as the Congress 
of the United States. Immediately after Christmas a series of lec- 
tures treating of the fundamental principles of economics were 
arranged, and the attention of the class concentrated on the important 
industrial, commercial, and agricultural problems of this country, 
particularly the problems of the Southern States. 

Out of this work developed a very active interest among the boys 
in public affairs, and to hold this interest, and at the same time make 
the work of lasting value, it was recognized that their historic and 
theoretical study of political and economic problems must in some 
way be connected with the practical, everyday experiences in the 
industrial centers. Wmston-Salem being essentially a manufacturing 
community, the means of studying actual conditions were immediately 
available. A feasible method of undertaking this was provided 
through the organization of a ''juvenile club" of the Winston-Salem 
Board of Trade and the establishment of a close cooperation between 
the work of the high school and that of the board of trade. 

The juvenile club of the Winston-Salem Board of Trade. — Having 
declared that ''no commercial organization performs its legitimate 
functions unless it makes an effort to inculcate the principles of true 
citizenship in the minds of its members, and to advance the social 
conditions of the people always ahead of the march of industrial and 
commercial progress," the Winston-Salem Board of Trade readily 
indorsed the plan to form a boys' division of the board, and authority 
was given the secretary to carry this out. The result was the forma- 
tion of the juvenile club. 

Membership in the juvenile club is not limited to high-school boys, 
for it was thought best to open to all interested boys of the city a way 
to become identified with constructive and active civic work. To 
become a member of the club, however, the boy must be at least 14 
years of age and under 21 years old. Another condition of member- 
ship is that the boy must subscribe to and recite from memory, before 



56 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

the secretary of the board of trade, the Athenian oath, which is as 
follows : 

We will never bring di^race to this, our city, by any act of dishonesty or cowardice, 
nor ever desert our suffering comrades in the ranks; we will fight for the ideals and 
sacred things of the city both alone and with many; we will revere and obey the city's 
laws and do our best to incite a like respect and r-everence in those above us who are 
prone to annul or to set them at naught; we will strive unceasingly to quicken the 
public sense of civic duty. Thus, in all these ways we will transmit this city not 
less, but greater, better, and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us. 

A membership register is kept in which the boys sign their names 
after subscribing to and reciting this oath. 

The boys have the privilege of attending all regular meetings of 
the board of trade, with the right to take part in debates, but without 
any voting power. They are assigned committee work, and special 
meetings are held for them twice a month or more frequently if the 
work demands it. Members of the juvenile club pay no fee. 

The club has a membership of about 50 boys, the first member 
being enrolled October 14, 1912. 

Every effort is made to properly train these boys for the duties 
of citizenship ; to create in them respect for honest and efficient pub- 
lic service, and to actively interest them in the work of making 
Wiaston-Salem a better, greater, and more beautiful city in which to 
live. 

Cooperation of Juvenile Qub with High School. — The first employ- 
ment of the members of the juvenile club has been ia the industrial 
survey which the board of trade is making of Winston-Salem. All 
of the boys selected to assist in this work are students in the depart- 
ment of government and economics of the high school. In this way 
the senior high-school boys are able to take part in an organized 
industrial investigation under proper authority. 

In this work the boys visit the local manufacturing establish- 
ments and fill a detailed industrial schedule, ia the same manner as 
do special agents of the statistical bureaus of the Federal Govern- 
ment. They are held strictly responsible for the accuracy of their 
reports, and the statistical tables which are benig made up are com- 
piled directly from their schedules. 

The Wiaston-Salem plan, as it may be termed, trains the boys of 
the city for citizenship; first, in the high school where they are 
taught the principles of civil government and instructed in the 
theories and basic problems governing our economic order; second, 
in the juvenile club, where they have the means of being identified 
with real work of municipal development, and to take part in actual 
social and industrial investigations. An opportunity is thus pro- 
vided for the boys to study at close range the varied industries of 
the city under competent direction and in an official capacity. 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 57 

In brief, the plan contemplates, first, teaching the boys how to live; 
and, second, equipping them with an education by which they can 
make a living, which, in the end, is the real secret of practical training 
for intelligent citizenship. 



UNIFORM GRAMMATICAL TERMS. 

New York City. Wm. H. Maxwell, superintendent of city schools, 
report, 1911-12. — The board of superintendents of New York City 
has prepared and issued a syllabus on the uniform grammatical terms 
that shall hereafter be used in the schools of that city. This action 
was made necessary by the fact that there are many grammars on 
the list of supplies arid no two of them are in accord on such tech- 
nical terms as '^ attribute," '^ predicate nominative," ''indirect 
object of a verb," ''adverbial phrase," "subordinate conjunction," 
"conjunctive adverb," and the like. Whenever a pupil was trans- 
ferred from one school to another and a new grammar put into his 
hands he was confronted with the necessity of acquiring a new set of 
technical terms and of unlearning those which he had acquired in 
the school he left. 

The terms agreed upon by the board of superintendents are as 
follows : 

1. Nominative absolute, instead of "noun with a participle," "absolute nomina- 
tive," etc. 

2. Nominative by direct address, instead of "vocative," "independent by direct 
address," etc. 

3. Nominative by exclamation, instead of "independent by exclamation," "nomi- 
native independent," etc. 

4. Predicate nominative and predicate adjective, instead of "subj-ective complement," 
"attribute," "attribute complement," etc. We have been classmates. No man was 
his enemy. It is /. They were afraid. 

5. Object of a verb, instead of "direct object," "object complement," etc. 

6. Indirect object, instead of "dative object," "object of a preposition understood," 
etc. 

7. Object of a preposition, instead oi "principal word in a prepositional phrase," 
"object with a preposition," etc. 

8. Objective complement, instead of "factitive object," as. They elected him president. 

9. Adverbial objective, instead of "noun used adverbially" or "noun to express 
time, space, measure," etc. 

10. Retained object, instead of "objective of passive verb." He was given the 
position of secretary. 

11. Noun in apposition, instead of "appositive noun," etc. 

12. Auxiliary verb, instead of "helping verb," etc. 

13. Copulative verb, instead of "the copula," "verb of incomplete predication," 
etc.; terms applied to the verb is and other verbs (except verbs in the passive voice) 
that take a predicate nominative or a predicate adjective. 

14. Progressive forms of the verb, instead of "continuing verbs," for such terms as am 
going, has been running, etc. 

15. Past participle, instead of "passive participle." 



58 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

16. Mood, instead of "mode." 

17. Past tense, instead of "preterite." 

18. The term subject will be understood to mean the complete subject, including 
its modifiers. 

19. The term predicate shall be understood to mean the verb with all its complements 
and modifiers. 

When the syntax of a word, phrase, or clause is called for, the 
syntax shall be understood to mean the grammatical relation of such 
word, phrase, or clause to another word or other words in the sentence. 

When the syntax of a noun or pronoun is called for, the reason for 
its case should be stated, and in the case of a pronoun, its person. 

When the syntax of an adjective or an adverb is called for, the word 
modified should be stated. 

When the syntax of a verb is called for, the subject noun, pronoun, 
phrase, or clause, and the complement (if any), and the number and 
person should be stated. 

When the syntax of a phrase or clause is called for, the statement 
should follow the form prescribed for the noun, adjective, or adverb 
whose office it fulfills. 

Classifications. 



a. Noun: 


f. 


Verbal: 


proper 




infinitive 


collective 




participle 


common 




participial noun 


b. Verb: 


g- 


Tense: 


regular 




present 


irregular 




past 


transitive 




future 


intfaneitive 




present perfect 


copulative 




past perfect 


c- Pronoun: 




future perfect 


personal 


h. 


Case: 


relative 




nominative 


interrogative 




possessive 


adjective 




objective 


d. Conjunction: 


i. 


Phrase clause: 


coordinating 




noun 


subordinating 




adjective 


e. Mood: 




adverbial 


indicative 






subjunctive 






imperative 








NOTES. 



Gettysburg, Pa., has a parent- teachers' association which enrolls as 
many fathers as mothers. 

In Southhridge, Mass., a cooperative industrial course modeled on 
the Fitchburg plan has been introduced. 



PEATUBES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 59 

At Winona, Minn., persons who are obliged to work at least part 
time in the stores and factories are permitted to attend the high 
school part of the day. 

All the new school buildings of Salt Lake City have ten acres each 
in grounds. 

Menominee, Mich., requires all elementary-school teachers to be 
graduates of a four-year high-school course and of a two-year normal 
course. 

At Fort Bodge, Iowa, it is the policy of the school board in erecting 
new school buildings, to have grounds of not less than a block in size. 

At Dubois, Pa., the teachers keep a record of principal language 
errors, by grades, and make an effort to correct these by games and 
by individual mstruction. 

The school board of Louisville, Ky., by installing a modern system 
of purchasing supplies, has effected a considerable saving. On coal 
more than $5,000 was saved during the winter of 1911-12. 

At Phoenixville,Pa., in addition to a card-record system, which has 
been in use for eight years, a photograph of each child is included. 
This is requii-ed to enable the superintendent, pruicipal, and attend- 
ance officer to identify the children. 

Bloomjield, N.J., has introduced a ''vocational course" in the 
eighth grade of that city, giving eight periods a week to manual 
trairdng and drawing for boys and eight periods a week to sewmg and 
cooking for girls who desire to take more work in vocational subjects. 

At Mount Vernon, N. Y., some of the school buildings are open for 
evening meetings in order to enlighten the foreign element in the 
city and to make them feel that they are welcome in the schools. 
Talks illustrated by stereopticon views are given in Itahan, m Yiddish, 
and in Swedish. 

The teachers of East Liverpool, Ohio, in order to have fuller cooper- 
ation between the school and the home, visit a number of the homes. 
These visits, it is reported, bring about a better understanding between 
the parents and the teachers in that city. 

At Newark, Ohio, special evening sessions of the high school are 
occasionally held for the benefit of parents who can not visit ths 
school during the day. Regular class work is conducted. Greater 
sympathy and closer cooperation between parents and teachers are 
the results desired. 

At Bristol, Conn., the board of education has passed a rule permit- 
ting high-school pupils to substitute music, either instrumental, vocal, 
or theoretical, for a high-school study. In order to do this they must 
do a specified amount of work under a teacher approved by the board, 
and reports must be made by the music teacher and by the parents 
in regard to progress and practice. 



60 FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 

The school board of Cleveland, Ohio, is planning to meet as fully as 
possible the needs of elementary schools by providing more rooms by 
dividing some of the auditoriums into classrooms by means of portable 
partitions. Supt. J. M. H. Frederick says that spacious auditoriums, 
although valuable, are scarcely justifying themselves when school- 
rooms are crowded. 

At Wilkes-Barre, Pa., parent- teacher associations have been organ- 
ized in almost every school. Their aim is to bring the school and 
home into fuller cooperation and to increase the interest of the parent 
in the work of the school. At the meetings such topics are discussed 
as sanitation, proper feeding and clothing of the pupils, the children's 
manners, pocket money, etc. 

At Whitman, Mass., credits will be given in the high school for 
outside work in music and art. Application for credit must be made 
at the beginning of the year to the principal by both the parent and 
the private teacher. During the year reports from the private 
teacher must be sent to the school, and the public school-supervisors 
of music and art follow the work of the pupil and pass judgment upon 
same at the end of the year to determine credit allowed. 

At Rutland, Vt., for the past 10 summers the school board has 
conducted a four weeks' continuation school for those pupils in the 
intermediate and grammar grades who were not regularly promoted 
The average yearly attendance at this school has been about 60 pupils, 
about 80 per cent of whom made up deficiencies and were regularly 
promoted. About 85 per cent of those promoted did creditable work 
the following year. The expense to the city of maintaining this 
school has averaged only $125 a year. 

The superintendent of schools of Covington, Ky., has found that 
parent- teacher associations are very valuable auxiliary agencies. 
These organizations have made a special effort to reach those homes 
where the welfare of the child is often a matter of little concern. The 
children in many of these homes have been clothed and fed; with this 
assistance many children have attended school regularly who other- 
wise would have been subjects for investigation by the truant officers. 

In the high school of Cheyenne, Wyo., there is a cadet corps com- 
posed of 60 high-school boys under the immediate leadership of a 
lieutenant of the Regular Army. These boys drill twice a week imme- 
diately after the close of school. Two public exhibitions ^re given 
each year. At these contests the boys appear in full uniform and 
are inspected by some one prominent in Army circles. The superin- 
tendent reports that the boys who take part in the drills are keenly 
interested in their work and are better physically than the average of 
their size. 

In the schools of Norristown, Pa., 40 pupils or less are assigned to a 
teacher. The pupils are divided into two sections. One section 



FEATURES IN CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS. 61 

attends the first hour and a half of the forenoon school session and the 
first hour and a half of the afternoon session. The second section 
attends the second hour and a half of the forenoon session and the 
second hour and a half of the afternoon session. This arrangement 
gives the teacher 20 pupils or less at any one time. The superin- 
tendent after having tried the plan for five years claims that it guards 
against fatigue, that it secures the interest of the children, and that 
it offers a larger opportunity for individual work. 

Some of the important things worked out in the schools of New 
York City withiu the past two or three years have been: 

1. Arrangements by which it is possible for those whose day high- 
school work has been iaterrupted and for those who have not had an 
opportunity to obtain the advantages of a high-school education, 
to secure a State secondary diploma by attending evening high school 
and passing the necessary examination. 

2. The estabhshment of summer evening schools for foreigners 
who can not speak Enghsh. 

3. A large development of technical or trade instruction in both 
evening schools and day schools. 

4. A large development of special schools and classes for defective 
children: (a) Open-air classes for anemic and tuberculous children; 
(6) classes for curing speech defects; (c) classes for crippled children; 
{d) classes for the blind; {e) classes for the deaf and dumb. 

5. The adoption of various devices for helping backward and 
over-age children. 

6. A great extension of the teaching of cooking and shopwork for 
children over 12 years of age. 

7. A great development of parents' associations in connection 
with the several schools. 

O 



^^mM^^ 



/ BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 

" (Continaed from page 2 of cover.) 

1912— Continued. 

♦No. 17. The Montessori s^'^stem of education. Anna Tolman Smith. 5 cts. 
*No. 18. Teaching language through agriculture, etc. M. A. Leiper. 5 cte. 
*No. 19. Professional distribution of college graduates. B. B. Burritt. 10 cts. 
*No. 20. Readjustment of a rural high school. H. A. Brown. 10 cts. 

No. 21. Urban and rural common-school statistics. H. Updegraff and W. R. Hood. 

No. 22. PubHc and private high schools. 
*No. 23. Special collections in libraries. W. D. Johnston and I. G. Mudge. 10 cts. 

No. 24. Current educational topics, No. III. 

No. 25. List of publications of the United States Bureau of Education, 1912. 

No. 26. Bibliography of child study for the years 1910-11, 

No. 27. History of publicnschool education in Arkansas. Stephen B. Weeks. 

No. 28. Cultivating school grounds in Wake County, N. C. Zebulon Judd. 

Na. 29. Bibliography of the teaching of mathematics, 1900-1912. 

No. 30. Latin- American universities and special schools. Edgar Ewing Brandon. 

No. 31. Educational directory, 1912. 

No. 32. Bibliography of exceptional children and their education. A. MacDonald. 

No. 33. Statistics of State universities, etc., 1912. 

1913. 

No. 1. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1913. 

No. 2. Training courses for rural teachers. A. C. Monahan and R. H. Wright. 

No. 3. The teaching of modem languages in the United States. C. H. Handschin. 

No. 4. Present standards of higher education. George Edwin MacLe^n. 

No. 5. Monthly record of current educational publications, February, 1913. 

No. 6. Agricultural instruction in high schools. C. H. Robison and F. B. Jenka. 

No. 7. College entrance requirements. Clarence D. Kingsley. 

No. 8. The status of rural education. A. C. Monahan. 

No. 9. Consular reports on continuation schools in Prussia. 

No. 10. Monthly record of current educational publications, March, 1913. 

No. 11. Monthly record of current educational publications, April, 1913. 

No. 12. The promotion of peace. Fannie Fern Andrews. 

No. 13. Standards for measuring the efficiency of schools. G. D. Strayer. 

No. 14. Agricultural instruction in secondary schools. 

No. 15. Monthly record of current educational publications, Tvlay, 1913. 

No. 16. Bibliography of medical inspection and health supervision. 

No. 17. A trade school for girls. 

No. 18. Congress on hygiene and demography. Fletcher B. Dresslar, 

No. 19. German industrial education. Holmes Beckwith. 

No. 20. Illiteracy in the United States. 

No. 21. Monthly record of current educational publications, June, 1913. 

No. 22. Bibliography of industrial, vocational, and trade education. 

:;o. 23. The Georgia Club. E.C.Branson. 

y^'K 24. Education in Germany and the United States. G. Kerschensteiner. 

No. 25. Industrial education in Columbus, Ga. R. B. Daniel. 

?N>». 26. Good roads arbor day. Susan B. Sipe. 

No. 27. Prison schools. A. C. Hill. 

No. 23. Expressions on education by American statesmen, etc. 

No. 20. Accredited secondary schools in the United States. K. C. Babcock. 



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